Whatsapp recently launched Whatsapp Web; their online portal to accessing the app online which let’s face it has been much demanded for quite some time now. Sadly though the app developers have chosen to offer this option to only Chrome users and to specifically indicate that it will also not be possible for iOS users to use the option either.
More than 500,000 people in the world most especially in Africa, Asia and South America use Whatsapp. To take advantage of these people and strip away their right of choice to what browser they can use to access their account and texts is beyond terrible. It shows that Whatsapp doesn’t care about users on Firefox, Opera, Maxthon and other browsers; it chooses Google for you so you must use Chrome. This implies that it is not even at all worried to lose users to open source alternatives like Telegram that has spread across all platforms including Firefox OS.
This is a new form of online discrimination where we are denied access to some services according to the browser or operating system we choose to use. Someone here in Uganda is unable to officially access Whatsapp because it’s limited to a few mobile platforms.
I say we should stand up to stop this kind of new trend happening with corporates, you’re a user and supporter of their products and they must respect your right to access an open and free web. Does Whatsapp understand this? In fact it should be Whatsapp for Google not Whatsapp Web, they have not yet earned the right to call it that yet.
My advice is you should stand up for your right to an open and free web. As for me, I choose Firefox and I would love to use my whatsapp online too!
Source: Newslibre.
