Facebook merging Messenger and Instagram chat only benefits Zuckerberg — not you
Together, with Facebook, 24/7
The Messenger/Instagram Direct merge willextend tofeatures rolled out during the pandemic, such as the “Watch Together” tool for Messenger. As the name suggests, this lets users watch videos together in real time. Now, both Messenger and Instagram users will be able to use it, regardless of which app they’re on.
With the integration, new privacy challenges emerge. Facebook hasalready acknowledgedthis. And these challenges will present despite Facebook’s overarching privacy policy applying to every app in its app “family”.
For example, in the new merged messaging ecosystem, a user you previously blocked on Messenger won’t automatically be blocked on Instagram. Thus, the blocked person will be able toonce again contact you. This could open doors to a plethora of unexpected online abuse.
Why this is good for Mark Zuckerberg
This first step – and Facebook’sfull roadmapfor the encrypted integration of WhatsApp, Instagram Direct and Messenger – has three clear outcomes.
Firstly, end-to-end encryption means Facebook will havecomplete deniabilityfor anything that travels across its messaging tools.
It won’t be able to “see” the messages. While this might be good from a user privacy perspective, it also means anything from bullying, toscams, to illegal drug sales, topaedophiliacan’t be policed if it happens via these tools.
This would stop Facebook being blamed for hurtful or illegal uses of its services. As far as moderating the platform goes, Facebook would effectively become “invisible” (not to mention moderation isexpensive and complicated).
This is all great news for Mark Zuckerberg, especially as Facebook stares down the barrel ofpotential anti-trust litigation.
Secondly, once the apps are merged, functionally they will no longer be separate platforms. They will stillexistas separate apps with some separate features, but the vast amount of personal data underpinning them will live in one giant, shared database.
Deeper data integration will let Facebook know users more intimately. Moreover, it will be able to leverage this new insight to target users with more advertising and expand further.
Finally, and perhaps most concerning, is that by integrating its apps Facebook could legitimately respond toanti-trust lawsuitsby saying it can’t separate Instagram or WhatsApp from the main Facebook platform – because they’re the same thing now.
And if they can’t be separated, there’s no way Facebook could sell Instagram or WhatsApp, even if it wanted to.
100 billion messages a day
The messaging traffic across Facebook’s platformsis vast, with more than 100 billion messages sent daily. And this hasonlyincreasedduring the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the sheer size of its user database, Facebook continues to either purchase, or squash, its competition. Concerns about the company being a monopoly aren’t without merit.
Researchersandfounding Facebook employeeshave called to have the company split up – and for Instagram and Whatsapp to become separate again.
Just a few months ago, Facebook released its Instagram-housed toolReelswhich bears a striking resemblance to TikTok, another social app sweeping the globe.
It seems this is just another example of Facebook trying to use the sheer size of its network to stifle growing competition, aided (perhaps unwittingly) by Donald Trump’s anti-China sentiment.
If competition is important to encouraging innovation and diversity, then the newest development from Facebook discourages both these things. It further entrenches Facebook and its services into the lives of consumers, making it harder to pull away. And this certainly isn’t far from monopolistic behavior.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyTama Leaver, Associate Professor in Internet Studies,Curtin Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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