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28 Groups Denounce Facebook's Plan to Extended Data Collection by Pestering WhatsApp Users, Degrading Features
WASHINGTON
A coalition of 28 groups across the globe today sent a letter to Facebook demanding the company stop intimidating WhatsApp users to accept extended data collection, originally set to take effect on May 15.
Instead of forcing users to immediately accept new terms, Facebook is now pestering WhatsApp users to accept its policy change by May 15 or, under a new opaque timeframe, within a few weeks. WhatsApp will continually remind users to accept the new privacy policy and gradually degrade or remove core features of the app for those who do not--such as removing access to their personal chat list and deactivating message notifications. The company has not said when it plans to start restricting features.
"Despite persistent, international calls to respect people's privacy, the revised plan still prioritizes Facebook's exploitative business practices over basic privacy rights," the groups said. Facebook must immediately stop asking WhatsApp users to accept a degraded privacy policy and should reverse course on this latest move against global communications, the groups maintain.
"Facebook's prospective business model relies on extended data integration between WhatsApp and Facebook to benefit its own bottom line at the expense of user privacy. Facebook appears dedicated to continuing exploiting WhatsApp data to advance its marketing and commercial interests. Facebook has shown time and again that it simply cannot be trusted to safeguard our privacy or data," the letter reads.
"We must try to make sure Facebook is in possession of less of our data, not more. We simply cannot let the globe's messaging service function as Mark Zuckerberg's latest data goldmine. Given that Facebook's business model predicated on privacy invasion and consumer exploitation, Facebook never should have been allowed to acquire WhatsApp. The time to break up Facebook has come. The time to act is now. Save WhatsApp!"
- Burcu Kilic, digital rights program director, Public Citizen (U.S)
"Terms of usage constantly change to use business models that capitalize on member data with little regard to user privacy. We must ensure that communities, many of whom are Latino, are not held hostage by Facebook. The threat of being dropped from WhatsApp for not accepting privacy changes that only serve Facebook is reprehensible and shameful!"
- Jose M. Vargas, executive director, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (U.S.)
"Facebook continues to aggressively undermine the privacy rights of people using its platforms, including WhatsApp. To squeeze further monetization from WhatsApp, it's working to rewire this essential global messaging service to further incorporate Facebook's myriad of extensive commercial data-gathering practices. Facebook's priorities of placing its constant search for greater revenues over the interest of the public is one reason why the company must be tightly regulated, and WhatsApp must be restored as an independent entity."
- Jeff Chester, executive director, Center for Digital Democracy (U.S.)
"Facebook has repeatedly broken the privacy promises it made when it acquired WhatsApp. It's time that privacy regulators worldwide and stop Facebook from misusing WhatsApp user data."
- Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director, Electronic Privacy Information Center (U.S.)
"Facebook's continuing insistence on exploiting all the people who aren't protected by privacy laws like GDPR shows how tone deaf this big tech monopoly still is in this crucial moment of reckoning. From all sides, people are demanding that their privacy rights be valued more than big tech profits. That Facebook would betray its own promises from when it acquired WhatsApp and continue to push forward in its cruel plan to manipulate and exploit people who are reliant on WhatsApp says a lot not only about the company's promises, but the company's prevailing motivations. Let the way that the WhatsApp community is being treated serve as a warning sign that Facebook has not learned and is not changing. In fact, with this move they're doubling down on abusive surveillance capitalist practices while gaslighting their customers."
- Lia Holland, campaigns & communications director, Fight for the Future (U.S.)
"WhatsApp is the most used instant messaging app in Latin America, at least partially thanks to zero-rating plans that allow people to communicate through the app without affecting their plan's data cap. The changes to WhatsApp privacy policy pushed by Facebook strengthen its dominant position in the market, making even more difficult to look for alternatives more respectful of people's rights."
- Maria Paz Canales, executive director, Derechos Digitales (Latin America)
"It is the newer people joining WhatsApp that brings all the value that the network holds. Zuckerberg cannot be allowed to break his promise and still retain WhatsApp. Regulators across the world must see to it. There has been some good news from Germany in this regard, and we are sure more will follow, with citizen groups keeping up the pressure. The recent announcement that the coercive action on WhatsApp users will be administered slowly over a few weeks and not suddenly is a cruel joke, akin to telling a condemned prisoner that he will not beheaded but killed by slow strangulation."
- Parminder Jeet Singh, executive director, IT for Change (India)
"WhatsApp and Facebook, in a clear abuse of dominant position, share users' personal data without legal basis, without clear purposes, and without any possibility of opposition by its users. It's essential that the companies start respecting consumers liberty of choice and right to self-determination by giving them granular options to determine what and how data it will be collected, with what purpose and by whom."
- Juliana Oms, attorney, Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection (IDEC) (Brazil)
"Facebook is adopting a double-standard: good behavior in countries with data-protection laws, and trying to get away with abusive data practices everywhere else, such as this 'open-timeframe' for accepting the new policy. The fact that executives are bragging that most users have already accepted an abusive policy is alarming. It is time to be the company you claim to be and stop abusing your economic power."
- Flora Rebello Arduini, senior campaigner, SumOfUs (Brazil)
"For too many people, leaving WhatsApp - especially when so many rely on it to keep in touch with their loved ones - is not a viable option. Facebook knows this, yet the company still wants to force users to accept a policy that would undermine their privacy. This is a blatant abuse of their dominance. Already South Africa's information regulator has sounded the alarm about the new policy contravening the country's Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA) and how the new policy is discriminatory as people in some parts of the world would enjoy significantly more privacy protections than users elsewhere. Mark Zuckerberg ignoring this call would be a blatant undermining of people's privacy in the interest of profit."
- Palesa Ramolefo, campaigner, mobi (South Africa)
"We are worried about the instability to which users in Paraguay and the global south in general are subjected to when it comes to privacy policies and terms of services that are constantly changing. It is not fair, particularly when so many individuals don't have a choice but to use WhatsApp due to poor connectivity and infrastructure."
- Eduardo Carrillo, human rights and public policies analyst, TEDIC (Paraguay)
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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'We Cannot Stand Silent': Sheinbaum to Seek Criminal Charges Over ICE Detention Deaths
"We cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died," said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Jul 10, 2026
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government intends to pursue criminal charges over the deaths of 17 Mexican nationals in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Associated Press reported that Sheinbaum's administration will submit a request "to state prosecutors' offices and the US Department of Justice, asking them to consider criminal charges against those responsible for the deaths." The request, according to AP, "will be accompanied by civil lawsuits against the companies that operate the detention centers in an effort to put an end to human rights violations in those facilities."
Sheinbaum said her government decided to urgently move forward with its likely doomed push for accountability after an ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston earlier this week. Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, had been living in the US for more than three decades.
Mexico's president called the killing "sad and regrettable," arguing that it "appears to have been targeted."
"We are going to do everything in our power, because we cannot stand silent," Sheinbaum said Thursday. "We cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died."
According to a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, "the mortality rate of deaths in ICE custody is at its highest level in over a decade and has more than doubled since [US President Donald] Trump’s second term began."
"The rate is nearly four times that of the Biden administration, and more than two and a half times as high as that of the first Trump administration," the report found, noting that a record 71,000 people were in immigration detention in January 2026. "The surge in deaths is much worse than what one would expect even considering the much higher number of people in detention."
Deaths in ICE custody have drawn international alarm, with the United Nations high commissioner for human rights saying last month that "the lack of transparency and clarity surrounding the circumstances of these deaths in custody undermines accountability for them."
“I call for prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all deaths in ICE custody," said Volker Türk. "Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims’ families to truth, justice and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld."
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Troy Jackson Says He Would 'Never Vote’ for Military Aid to Israel if Elected to Senate
"Anybody with eyes and a heart knows the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza," the Maine Senate candidate said.
Jul 10, 2026
As he runs to take the place of Graham Platner as the Democratic US Senate nominee for Maine, former State Senate President Troy Jackson affirmed that he was in step with the majority of Democratic voters and would oppose sending military aid to Israel as it commits what he called a "genocide" in Gaza.
Jackson, a longtime labor activist who finished third in the Democratic gubernatorial primary last month, has been floated by many progressives as a fitting replacement for Platner, who suspended his campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins this week following sexual assault allegations.
In his campaign announcement, Jackson hit many similar themes to Platner, who won the Democratic primary last month.
Jackson billed himself as a "progressive fighter" seeking to build a "powerful movement of working-class people" and emphasizing his support for Medicare for All and "tak[ing] on corporate power."
But some observers noted the absence of any mention of Gaza, which Platner emphasized heavily and which has become a central moral issue for many Democratic voters, who overwhelmingly oppose continued support for Israel as it commits what the majority feel is a genocide against Palestinians.
A review of Jackson's social media history showed that he had no posts about Gaza when he announced his campaign on Wednesday.
But following reports that an Israeli missile strike had killed a Palestinian aid worker who'd organized World Cup watch parties in Gaza, Jackson took the opportunity to make his stance clear.
"This is unconscionable," Jackson wrote on X. "Anybody with eyes and a heart knows the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza. It has to end, and we as Americans have the power to end it."
"When I'm in the US Senate," he continued, "I’ll never vote in favor of US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel."
Other leading candidates, most of whom ran for governor, have expressed a range of opinions about Israel's conduct.
Nirav Shah, a physician who led the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2019 to 2023 and finished second in the gubernatorial primary, has expressed a similarly strong stance that Israel was committing genocide and that he would support a full arms embargo and would refuse any campaign funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Shenna Bellows, who came in fourth place in the governor's race and currently serves as Maine's secretary of state, has not publicly expressed a clear opinion on support for Israel, though in her 2014 Senate run against Collins, she advocated more generally for “deep cuts in defense spending” so public money could be directed toward domestic projects.
The progressive group Our Revolution, which has thrown its support behind Jackson, commended the candidate for taking a forthright stance.
"Troy Jackson doesn’t do word salad," the group said. "He calls a genocide a genocide and says he’ll never vote for taxpayer-funded military aid to fund it. That’s what Maine voters delivered a historic win for on June 9."
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Trump Admin Trying to Deport Witnesses Who Contradicted ICE Claims About Fatal Shooting
"ICE appears to have lied yet again about killing someone," said one immigration expert.
Jul 10, 2026
The controversy surrounding the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by federal immigration enforcement officials is growing amid new reports that the Trump administration is trying to deport three witnesses to the the fatal shooting.
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a Thursday interview with The New Republic that the witnesses, all undocumented immigrants who were detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials after the shooting, are "being pressured to sign self-deportation orders."
"They’re currently in detention," said Proaño, who is serving as a representative for Salgado Araujo's family. "These men hold the key to what actually happened."
Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who ran a small construction business and had been living in the US for more than three decades, was pulled over by ICE officers in unmarked vehicles on Tuesday morning.
ICE officers claimed that Salgado Araujo, who was driving to work along with three coworkers, tried to evade arrest by ramming his car into them.
Purportedly fearing for his life, one ICE agent opened fire on Salgado Araujo and killed him, the officers said.
However, The Washington Post reported on Friday that all three men who were in the car with Salgado Araujo are strongly disputing the ICE agents' account of the deadly incident.
In fact, all three witnesses said that the ICE officer involved in the shooting opened fire immediately after exiting his vehicle, and that Salgado Araujo did not try to drive into him.
Detainee Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51, in a hand-written statement obtained by the Post through attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, bluntly contradicted the ICE officers' claims.
"That is a lie,” Trinidad Rojas wrote. “It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over … there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides."
Balderas-Ibarra told the Post that he interviewed the other two men in the car, who both gave the same account.
“All of them reiterated that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van,” Balderas-Ibarra said. “They came in and started shooting from the sides.”
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said in a Friday social media post that the Post's reporting seems to show "ICE appears to have lied yet again about killing someone."
"Unbelievable," he added, "but actually totally believable given that they lie about events fully captured on video."
In a separate post, Bier examined a video of the shooting scene and noted that there appeared to be no damage to the front of Salgado Araujo's van, even as ICE claimed Salgado Araujo had tried to use it as a weapon against them.
Video appears to show no damage to the vehicle of the man ICE killed in Houston, who had lived in America peacefully for 35 years, despite ICE's claim that he "rammed" an ICE vehicle and "tried to run over" an agent. These people are not credible. https://t.co/3d3cBJBMUg pic.twitter.com/N7GqoW7ycq
— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) July 9, 2026
"These people are not credible," Bier remarked.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, pointed out that all three witnesses to the shooting were telling the same stories even though they were being detained separately, which he said bolsters their credibility.
"When you add the videos showing a lack of evidence of damage to the front despite ICE's ramming claim," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick added, "ICE's story is falling apart."
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