Affordance is Power
Contradictions Between Communicational and Technical Dimensions of WhatsApp's End-to-End Encryption
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2413937 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marcelo Santos (0000-0002-2658-3764, Finis Terrae University, corresponding author), Antoine Faure (0000-0002-9140-5980, Finis Terrae University) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2018-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Media + Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/2056305118795876 |
| OpenAlex | W2888571869 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 11 |
WhatsApp's implementation of end-to-end encryption has been celebrated by many. Intriguingly, though, the invisible affordance was made visible with an individual message to each conversation. In this research, we 'properly scrutinize' the roll-out of the affordance in historical perspective inspired by the 'platform biography' approach, critically comparing corporate and media documentation with an analysis of the attributes and affordances that refer to the realm of privacy and security with focus on the end-to-end encryption. After pointing the contradictions with evidences found, we conclude that the implementation should be interpreted neither as a plain idealistic saga for user privacy and security by the App's founders nor as simply a market-oriented approach-though both are clearly components of the company's motives-but as a strategic move inserted in a: (1) Public Relations guerrilla strategy from WhatsApp Inc. facing national States and respective intelligence agencies or law enforcement institutions, in which context the development and implementation of affordances reveals a (2) power move by corporate digital media to avoid political conflict against vigilante state power and therefore the App's subsistent vulnerabilities in terms of privacy and security should be read as (3) a tradeoff between commercial massiveness at the expense of technological utopia
Affordance · Computer security · Conversation · Encryption · Human–computer interaction · Internet privacy · Political science · Public relations · Realm · Sociology · Communication · Computer Science · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection · Social Media and Politics
Looking for a Media Business Model
Introduction
The banality of WhatsApp
Mobile instant messaging applications in STEAM education
Beyond structural inequality
Privacy paradox in mHealth applications
The intersection of corporate discourse and platform design
WhatsApp disruptions in Brazil
Gendered power relations in the digital age
The platformisation of illicit drug markets
Infrastructural platform violence
WhatsApp
Between WeChat and WhatsApp
Switzerland by Design
Privacy in Crowdsourcing
How pro- and anti-abortion activists use encrypted messaging apps in post-Roe America
Chat Apps and Cascade Logic
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,83 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |