5/27/22, 6:15 PM WhatsApp is a Threat to Society. Here's How to Fix It. - Techonomy with child protection organizations, human rights defenders, minority groups, and other affected users as well as researchers and academics to understand the dynamics of dangerous content and test better ways to address it. This will require much more openness, transparency, and humility. In return, WhatsApp will gain a deeper understanding of harms, access better research, and source innovative solutions from a wider pool. Despite the damage that WhatsApp is enabling, so far the platform has largely escaped scrutiny. Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t had a “WhatsApp Myanmar moment” yet; he hasn’t been grilled by Congress about the trail of deaths and democratic distortions that WhatsApp enables. But it’s only a matter of time; last week’s Congressional hearings on encryption, while focused on the wrong solution, point to real risks. There’s growing concern in the US that white nationalists are increasingly using encrypted messaging to spread hate speech, and that the millions of pieces of child abuse content that Facebook reports every year would become invisible if Zuckerberg encrypts all messaging services. We predict that WhatsApp will be a powerful, targeted, and un-scrutinized misinformation tool in the 2020 elections. Legislators and regulators are paying much closer attention now—as they must. WhatsApp would be well-advised to spend less time on its new advertising and payment systems and more time fixing its current product. David Madden is a senior advisor at Omidyar Network, Founder of Phandeeyar, an innovation lab in Myanmar (Burma), co-founder of Purpose, a digital strategy agency, and social movements, Avaaz.org and GetUp.org. Anamitra Deb is senior director of the beneficial tech initiative at Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm established by Pam and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay.    TAGS FACEBOOK MARK ZUCKERBERG SECURITY + PRIVACY TECH + SOCIETY WHATSAPP SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON:     By David Madden David Madden is a senior advisor at Omidyar Network. He is also the founder of Phandeeyar, an innovation lab in Myanmar (Burma), cofounder of Purpose, a digital strategy agency, and social movements, Avaaz.org and GetUp.org. RELATED POSTS https://techonomy.com/whatsapp-is-a-threat-to-society-heres-how-to-fix-it/ SEE ALL  3/5