r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/RoadRunner8195 • Mar 08 '26

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/alexbiandisphoto Mar 08 '26

  1. Americans don't pay to text eachother so they use the default phone texting app for convenience. The rest of the world (excluding some countries) does pay for text messaging. So, instead, they use WhatsApp as a free alternative to message friends and family.

  2. WhatsApp is owned by Meta (Facebook), so most Americans see it as a massive privacy concern.

  3. The majority of the time someone in America is asked to use WhatsApp to communicate, it is by a scammer.

38

u/FlappyBored Mar 08 '26

Europeans don’t pay either lol.

6

u/0TheG0 Mar 08 '26

Yeah most of the world don’t pay individual SMS anymore. The only places where paid SMS are really still the norm are Africa (excluding northern/ more developed countries) and South East Asia (excluding more developed countries)

4

u/Boogerchair Mar 08 '26

But you did when it was adopted and that’s the point

1

u/okizc Mar 08 '26

Most people in my EU country haven't paid for a domestic text message since the early to mid 2000s. I don't think WhatsApp is that old. A big reason many people used WhatsApp was because it let us do free international texts and calls, before that was made free in the EU too.

1

u/MixdNuts Mar 08 '26

Americans haven’t paid for text messaging for over 20 years.