WhatsApp under fire in higher education

The messaging app Signal is rapidly gaining ground in the Netherlands. It is now at the top of the Dutch download charts. Entire groups of friends are banning WhatsApp, even though this sometimes leads to debate and hassle. Higher education institutions are also considering making the switch.

Mistrust of WhatsApp has grown after policy changes at parent company Meta, which also owns Instagram and Facebook. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in January that his company would no longer employ fact-checkers in the United States. Critics are concerned about the spread of fake news and hate speech.

Privacy
Since then, higher education institutions in the Netherlands have been looking for an alternative. Employees of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (HU) were recently advised to switch to Signal. Avans University of Applied Sciences has also been discussing a switch. 

HU argues that Signal keeps users' data private, unlike WhatsApp. Besides, Signal is a non-profit organisation, which means it has other interests compared to a commercial company such as Meta. Finally, Signal is completely open source, so the programming language can be verified.

SURF, the ICT organisation for higher education, does not yet have a guideline for which messaging app to use. "We're seeing our members discussing this more and more, and Signal is being adopted more widely," says a spokesperson for SURF.

Student unions
The National Student Union is concerned about privacy. The subject was raised at last week's general meeting, as reported by chair Abdelkader Karbache, who said: "Our local unions want to switch to Signal or other open-source software."

This is not the first time that people have raised questions about WhatsApp use in higher education. Internet pioneer and privacy activist Marleen Stikker suggested five years ago that universities should switch to systems based on privacy by design. She said that everyone should be vigilant: "As a student or teacher, you are allowed to be a difficult customer."

Two years ago, TikTok came under fire in higher education as well. Saxion University asked its staff not to use the Chinese programme on their work phones anymore, while Erasmus University urged its staff to remove TikTok from their phones because of "an increased risk of espionage."