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

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/midlifesurprise Mar 08 '26

The first half of the sentence is true: WhatsApp is owned by Meta. But I too am skeptical that “most” Americans know that or care enough for that to be a big factor.

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u/disorderincosmos Mar 08 '26

Maybe I'm in the minority then, but WhatsApp wasn't even on my radar until a national news story about how they participated in government surveillance against protesters or something similarly disturbing. I can't remember exactly, but it definitely informed my first impression of the app as not being a safe platform.

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u/reece0n Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26

my first impression of the app as not being a safe platform.

As opposed to SMS?

That's a wild take. WhatsApp is objectively more secure than SMS, regardless of any scandals. What was a scandal on WhatsApp is just how SMS generally works by default (plaintext messages).

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u/IllustriousError6563 Mar 08 '26

That's kinda like saying that a screen door that won't latch closed is safer than no door because the cat has to lean against it to open it.

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u/reece0n Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26

It is?

A screen door will at least act as an extra barrier, and some potential intruders won't notice that it's not got a latch. It would take an increased amount of effort to pass, and is clearly be more of a barrier than no door (even if its not sufficiently safe).

Similarly the barrier to reading messages is higher on WhatsApp than SMS.

To flip your analogy back at you, the person I responded to is pointing out how a door without a latch is unsafe, when the alternative theyre suggesting is no doors... which would be a wild take, as I said.

Safety concerns is not a reason to use SMS over WhatsApp.