Facebook's plan to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram messaging raises privacy concerns, fears of monopoly

But some experts are skeptical about the claim, which comes after a string of scandals regarding user privacy, data breaches and looming investigations.

The move toward an all-encompassing messaging platform has raised concerns from experts about both privacy and security for users and their data as well as antitrust issues if the company combines its platforms.

Interoperability, or the ability to message fluidly across all of the company's platforms has been mentioned by Zuckerberg before, but this is the most definitive statement the company has made about how it will work.

Regulatory experts told ABC News that Facebook's apparent goal of having one behemoth messaging platform for social networking, ads and commerce integrated into daily interactions like China's WeChat in which a user can order and pay for dinner could be considered a monopoly.

Facebook is currently facing 10 open investigations in Europe for violating the General Data Protection Regulation rules, which went into place last May, including one restricting WhatsApp from sharing data with Facebook, a European Union official confirmed to ABC News.

Germany's antitrust regulator, the Bundeskartellamt, ruled in February that Facebook cannot share messaging across platforms or data it collects with third-party applications without a user's explicit consent.

In his post and his last few calls with journalists, Zuckerberg has repeatedly stressed the security in end-to-end encryption, which is available on WhatsApp, and said that it would extend across the company's messaging platforms.

Zuckerberg cited the risks for political dissidents in authoritarian regimes if communications are not encrypted in his post.

He also mentioned a Facebook employee had been jailed in an unnamed country for not providing access to a user's private information.

However, the company did not offer specifics on the countries in which it would not store data and denied it would not make a play for China.

Original article
Author: Abc News

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