WhatsApp Pay halted by the Central Bank. What will happen to the 2020 election? And the government finally announces plans for mass testing.
WhatsApp Pay is Zuckerberg’s latest setback
Brazil’s Central Bank has effectively suspended WhatsApp Pay — a peer-to-peer transfer system that launched just last week — which allows users to send money via the popular instant messaging app. It ordered Visa and Mastercard to halt payments as it wants to further scrutinize the service before giving its authorization. In a statement, the bank said that allowing the service without examination could jeopardize Brazil’s payment systems in three areas: competition, efficiency, and data privacy.
- Meanwhile, antitrust watchdog Cade suspended WhatsApp’s deal with the banks that would process the payments during its initial phase (Nubank, Banco do Brasil, and Sicredi).
Why it matters. Banks reportedly complained to the monetary authority about the possible threats raised by WhatsApp Pay, namely market concentration and data privacy. The messaging app has over 120 million monthly users in Brazil.
- In recent years, Facebook (WhatsApp’s parent company) has faced heat over its handling of users’ private data in scandals such as the Cambridge Analytica affair (in which a political consulting firm accessed private data...