Breaking News: Competition Board Launched an Investigation into WhatsApp

According to the breaking news, the Competition Board launched an investigation into WhatsApp. The board, which initiated an investigation into Facebook and WhatsApp, stopped the obligation to share WhatsApp data. With the decision of the Competition Board dated 11.01.2021 and numbered 21-02 / 25-M, Facebook Inc., Facebook Ireland Ltd., WhatsApp Inc. and WhatsApp LLC (collectively referred to as "Facebook") to determine whether there has been a violation of Article 6 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition. After the investigation was started officially, the obligation to share WhatsApp data was stopped.The Competition Board used the following statements in its statement: ”As it is known, in recent days, WhatsApp users have been informed that the terms of use and privacy policy of WhatsApp will be updated, in the said notification, users must consent to the sharing of WhatsApp data with Facebook companies in order to continue using WhatsApp, otherwise, as of 8 February 2021, they cannot use WhatsApp, and as such, the update includes more data being collected, processed and used by Facebook. In the decision taken, interim measures should also be taken within the framework of Article 9 of the Law No. 4054, since these practices have the possibility of causing serious and irreparable damages until the final decision to be taken as a result of the investigation and within this scope it has been decided that Facebook should cease the conditions to collect data from WhatsApp users in Turkey and for other services as of February 8, 2021, and notify all users who accept these conditions or do not accept the information until the said date that Facebook has stopped the new conditions involving data sharing.”     You may also be interested in: Mandatory Update to WhatsApp in Turkey