WHATSAPP HAS BEEN accused of blocking links to rival messaging app Telegram on its own app.
Some users have reported the problem happening with the latest Android update, which was made available yesterday. Links to Telegram still appear as messages on Android, but they’re not recognised as links and cannot be copied.
Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, has a history of blocking links because its automated system recognises them as spam or dangerous.
Recently, it blocked links to Tsu.co, a social network that pays users a percentage of its ad revenue for each post. It was accused of doing the same when Google+ launched back in 2011, blocking invite links to the site.
This is the first time such an incident has happened on WhatsApp.
Telegram believes the blocking is deliberate telling The Verge “Typically after a media backlash, Facebook steps back and blames their intelligent filtering for the problem… we expect the same to happen this time as well.”
While it was launched in 2013, Telegram grew in popularity after Facebook bought WhatsApp last year. When the deal was announced, half a million people signed up to Telegram the next day.
Later when WhatsApp later experienced a major outage, almost five million people downloaded it in a day.
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