Hong Kong police’s anti-violence WhatsApp hotlines are suspended after only three days for violating operator’s terms of service
- Facebook, which owns messaging app, says platform is intended for private use only and that it habitually removes accounts for bulk behaviour
- Police say they decided to suspend hotlines because all were inoperable and it had received mixed feedback about the initiative
Facebook suspended 10 of Hong Kong police’s anti-violence WhatsApp hotlines on Friday – just three days after the service’s official launch – citing the fact the messenger app was intended for private messaging only.
The force launched the hotlines on Tuesday to assist in the prevention and detection of crime during the current civil unrest; it intended to use them to gather intelligence about violent incidents, such as photos, recordings and videos from members of the public.
But the Post learned that some of the hotlines were down as early as Tuesday and the force found all of them inoperable on Friday morning. A police source said Facebook had suspended the hotlines.
In a statement issued on Friday, a spokesman for Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, said the terms of use of the app stated that any non-personal use of the services was not allowed unless otherwise authorised by the company.
“WhatsApp is primarily designed for private messaging and we take action to prevent bulk and automated messaging,” the spokesman said.
The police said in a statement on Friday evening that it was the force that had decided to suspend the hotline because of mixed views it had received about it.
