Paytm CEO Posts 'Move on to Signal Now' Amid WhatsApp Row

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has joined the list of leaders urging people to move away from WhatsApp. Tesla founder Elon Musk set the trend on Friday when he simply tweeted ‘Use Signal’ but Sharma has posted a more detailed tweet, where he accused WhatsApp and Facebook of abusing monopoly and taking their users’ privacy for granted. In his tweet, Sharma said that “we should move on to Signal now”.

Signal has been a big gainer since users raised concerns about WhatsApp’s impending changes to its privacy policy and many WhatsApp groups are full of discussions about alternatives like Telegram and Signal. At the same time though, WhatsApp has pointed out that the changes are only to address business accounts, and that user data remains as secure as before.

It is worth noting that Sharma’s Paytm is a competitor to WhatsApp, which recently received permission to restart its UPI payments rollout. But he’s far from alone in this sentiment, and in fact, Hike CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal tweeted that there would never be an “Indian messenger” because the network effects of international apps are too strong. And apart from Elon Musk, noted whistleblower Edward Snowden also recommended people switch to Signal.

The movement away from WhatsApp, which reflects the growing discontent with big tech, has not slowed, and the Signal app in fact became the top messaging app in many countries over the weekend. 

Disclosure: Paytm’s parent company One97 is an investor in NDTV’s Gadgets 360.