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Meta antitrust trial kicks off in federal court

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431 points c420 | 1 comments | 14 Apr 25 13:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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karhuton ◴[15 Apr 25 05:42 UTC] No.43689325[source]▶
As someone who’s stuck with Whatsapp and no way out (friends and family won’t switch), I dearly hope for a split.

I do struggle to understand how we here casually lump tohether totally different platforms as comptetitors.

It’s not like I can use Youtube or Tiktok instead of Whatsapp with my family for direct and group discussion. Even X and Instagram would be a stretch, as their raison d’être is public social media and not instant messaging.

Sure the platforms have overlapping features, but you ain’t gonna use a knife insted of a spoon.

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fransje26 ◴[15 Apr 25 09:10 UTC] No.43690591[source]▶
> It’s not like I can use Youtube or Tiktok instead of Whatsapp with my family for direct and group discussion.

What's wrong with Signal? Or, worst-case scenario, Telegram?

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emblaegh ◴[15 Apr 25 11:10 UTC] No.43691237[source]▶
It’s hard to overstate the pervasiveness of WhatsApp in some some countries. Where I’m from work, service hiring, costumer service, etc are all conducted through (and specially for small businesses only though) WhatsApp.
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1. fransje26 ◴[16 Apr 25 09:46 UTC] No.43703392[source]▶
That's very true, in the same way that some countries seem to prefer using Facebook as "websites" for small businesses.

But this doesn't stop people from migrating their private interactions away from WhatsApp/Meta, by using using -as an example- Signal as their replacement app of choice where they can. The frictional cost of keeping WhatsApp for business interaction, and Signal for private interaction is fairly close to zero.