Social media in South Africa has been awash with panic, conspiracy theories and mass account deletions ever since it became known that on 8 February 2021 WhatsApp users would have to agree to a new set of terms and conditions in order to be able to continue using the platform.
Should it be taken seriously? Is the 8 February date applicable only to European Union users? And if so, knowing how pedantic the EU is about data privacy, shouldn’t South Africans be only too delighted about it all?
Frankly, the only thing to be taken seriously is what
information users have allowed social media platforms to have.