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Riyadh-based Etidal, Telegram Sign MoU to Enhance Cooperation

Photo by SPA
Photo by SPA
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Riyadh-based Etidal, Telegram Sign MoU to Enhance Cooperation

Photo by SPA
Photo by SPA

The Riyadh-based Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (Etidal) and Telegram have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance their existing cooperation in the prevention and combating of terrorism and violent extremism (Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, or PCVE). This agreement builds on their prior collaboration to address extremist content.
The MoU, signed by Etidal Secretary General Dr. Mansour Al-Shammari and Telegram Chief Operating Officer Mike Ravdonikas, aims to create new opportunities for continued joint efforts in countering extremist and terrorist propaganda, building capacities, and launching initiatives to achieve shared objectives, according to SPA.
This development reflects the strong relationship and productive collaboration between the two sides, which has been consistently advancing since their initial joint cooperation announcement on February 21, 2022, and remains active to this day.

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WhatsApp to Start Showing Ads to Users in Some Parts of the Messaging App

A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
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WhatsApp to Start Showing Ads to Users in Some Parts of the Messaging App

A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)

WhatsApp said Monday that users will start seeing ads in some parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people that use the messaging service.

Advertisements will be shown only in the app's Updates tab, which is used by as many as 1.5 billion people each day. However, they won't appear where personal chats are located, developers said.

"The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads," WhatsApp said in a blog post.

It’s a big change for the company, whose founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton vowed to keep the platform free of ads when they created it in 2009.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014 and the pair left a few years later. Parent company Meta has long been trying to generate revenue from WhatsApp.

WhatsApp said ads will be targeted to users based on information like the user's age, the country or city where they're located, the language they're using, the channels they're following in the app, and how they're interacting with the ads they see.

WhatsApp said it won't use personal messages, calls and groups that a user is a member of to target ads to the user.

It's one of three advertising features that WhatsApp unveiled on Monday as it tries to monetize the app's user base. Channels will also be able to charge users a monthly fee for subscriptions so they can get exclusive updates. And business owners will be able to pay to promote their channel's visibility to new users.