Come this December, WhatsApp will take legal action against those found engaging or assisting others in abuse of the platform or violating its Terms of Service. The WhatsApp legal action includes those sending out automated or bulk messaging, or using the platform for non-personal use, “even if that determination is based on information solely available to us off our platform.” Which means no more sending of newsletters, etc, from WhatsApp from Dec 7, 2019.
Here’s the announcement:
Unauthorized usage of the platform
WhatsApp is a private messaging platform originally built to help people message their friends and loved ones. Over time we’ve seen how people value messaging with businesses and so we’ve built two tools–the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business API–to help companies manage customer interactions. Our products are not intended for bulk or automated messaging, both of which have always been a violation of our Terms of Service.
We are committed to reinforcing the private nature of our platform and keeping users safe from abuse. We recently detailed our on-platform capabilities to identify and ban accounts in this white paper: Stopping Abuse: How WhatsApp Fights Bulk Messaging and Automated Behavior. We’re aware that some companies attempt to evade our machine learning systems, even as we work tirelessly to improve them. Using the on-platform information available within WhatsApp we’ve found and stopped millions of abusive accounts from operating on our service.
This is a challenge that requires a holistic approach and WhatsApp is committed to using the resources at its disposal–including legal action–to prevent abuse that violates our Terms of Service, such as automated or bulk messaging, or non-personal use. This is why in addition to technological enforcement, we also take legal action against individuals or companies that we link to on-platform evidence of such abuse. WhatsApp reserves its right to continue taking legal action in such circumstances.
