The city council of Delft has decided to stop using WhatsApp. For mutual contact in WhatsApp groups, the council members are switching to the chat function of Microsoft Teams. They will also (again) email the old-fashioned way.
The decision was made in a debate on the new terms of use that WhatsApp will introduce tomorrow. The messaging service will store and share user data with parent company Facebook.
D66 councilor Christine Bel talks about a matter of principle. “We especially wanted to highlight that there can be a high degree of coercion. If council members and residents do not agree to the new conditions on May 15, they will no longer be able to use the app.”
Awareness
The motion in which she proposed banning WhatsApp received a majority in the city council, although there were also critics. VVD councilor Dimitri van Rijn was particularly surprised: “To my knowledge, this app simply complies with the privacy regulations of the European Union, what exactly is wrong?”
“Above all, we want no one on the council to feel compelled to use WhatsApp. It is mainly about raising awareness,” Bel explains. “It actually works the same as corona rules, we still meet from home. Of course you prefer to meet in a normal way, but you don’t want to force anyone to come anyway if they feel unsafe.”
That argument turned out to be sufficient to convince a majority within the Delft municipal council. The WhatsApp groups of the council, the council committees and the presidium (mayor and group chairmen) will no longer be used from tomorrow. Individual council members are free to use the app.
–
