<story><title>WhatsApp sends Cease and Desists for apps that use native Android APIs</title><url>https://www.xda-developers.com/whatsapp-sends-cease-desist-apps-native-android-api/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>devit</author><text>The real problem here is that after this stunt I&amp;#x27;d like to completely stop using Whatsapp and switch to something else instead, but I can&amp;#x27;t because other people use Whatsapp and communicating with other people is essential to me.&lt;p&gt;The problem is there no laws to stop whoever becomes the lucky recipient of such a network effect from doing whatever they want.&lt;p&gt;Instead antitrust law needs to be expanded to consider network effect platforms like social network as monopolies on ways of interacting with their users, and restrict them from several behaviors like this one.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>amelius</author><text>&amp;gt; The problem is there no laws to stop whoever becomes the lucky recipient of such a network effect from doing whatever they want.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s the Telecommunications Act of 1996.&lt;p&gt;Quoting from Wikipedia:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Since communications services exhibit network effects and positive externalities, new entrants would face barriers to entry if they could not interconnect their networks with those of the incumbent carriers. Thus, another key provision of the 1996 Act sets obligations for incumbent carriers and new entrants to interconnect their networks with one another, imposing additional requirements on the incumbents because they might desire to restrict competitive entry by denying such interconnection or by setting terms, conditions, and rates that could undermine the ability of the new entrants to compete.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Telecommunications_Act_of_1996&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Telecommunications_Act_of_1996&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>WhatsApp sends Cease and Desists for apps that use native Android APIs</title><url>https://www.xda-developers.com/whatsapp-sends-cease-desist-apps-native-android-api/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>devit</author><text>The real problem here is that after this stunt I&amp;#x27;d like to completely stop using Whatsapp and switch to something else instead, but I can&amp;#x27;t because other people use Whatsapp and communicating with other people is essential to me.&lt;p&gt;The problem is there no laws to stop whoever becomes the lucky recipient of such a network effect from doing whatever they want.&lt;p&gt;Instead antitrust law needs to be expanded to consider network effect platforms like social network as monopolies on ways of interacting with their users, and restrict them from several behaviors like this one.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oliwarner</author><text>Saying ~&amp;quot;We need more laws!&amp;quot; isn&amp;#x27;t enough. What do you &lt;i&gt;specifically&lt;/i&gt; want here?&lt;p&gt;We could demand that all network protocols are fair game for reverse-engineering to enable interoperability. Or mandate public specs and save everybody a bit of effort.&lt;p&gt;But if it&amp;#x27;s my app —not the protocol or the service itself— that&amp;#x27;s generating revenue to pay for the whole thing (eg adverts), why is it fair to let people and other providers usurp that? What if I rely on a specific client setup for security (eg anti-cheat in multiplayer games)?&lt;p&gt;I do &lt;i&gt;very much&lt;/i&gt; see your point about social colonies forming and creating their own localised monopolies, but I just cannot see a clean way to fix it. Do you?</text></comment>