WhatsApp Hits Two Billion Users

New Delhi, February 13, 2020:

WhatsApp messenger has garnered as many as two billion users worldwide on Thursday according to the latest update.

WhatsApp users have increased from 1.5 billion in 2018. The messaging service company used the milestone to reiterate the importance of encrypting the messages of its users, a practice that is coming under increasing amounts of pressure from lawmakers around the world.

ALSO READ: LPG Cylinder Prices Hiked Yet again Across India

WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart said that the company had no plans to disable encryption on its service.

It may be mentioned here that governments across the world have argued that the inability to read people’s messages makes it harder to discover when the messaging app is misused to facilitate terrorism, child exploitation, and other crimes.

ALSO READ: Govt of India to Introduce New 1 Rupee Notes

However, “For all of human history, people have been able to communicate privately with each other, and we don’t think that should go away in a modern society,” Cathcart told The Wall Street Journal. However, the CEO added that WhatsApp will provide metadata when asked for an investigation.

Support Inside Northeast (InsideNE), an independent media platform that focuses on Citizen-centric stories from Northeast India that are surprising, inspiring, cinematic and emotionally relevant.