WhatsApp has just introduced a new sticker function, as it is already misappropriated: The Jewish Forum revealed on Twitter, as in right-wing group chats stickers with Nazi symbolism are shared.
No sooner does #WhatsApp allow you to create and use stickers, right-wing extremists are flooding their group chats with Nazi symbols (swastikas, SS runes, Hitler images, etc.) @WhatsApp, how can this be prevented? # Anti-Semitism pic.twitter.com/JnrhqiDhJc
- Jewish Forum (@JFDA_eV) November 15, 2018The messenger app Whatsapp had announced the end of October, the introduction of the sticker function. In other messaging services such as Facebook Messenger and Telegram, the function has been established for some time. Stickers are not only created by the Facebook subsidiary, but also third parties can dock on the stickers offer with their own ideas. Via a separate app, the stickers can be uploaded from any provider on WhatsApp.
Right-wing extremists now embrace this: in group chats they share stickers with unconstitutional symbols of swastikas and SS runes as well as pictures of Adolf Hitler and concentration camps. The Jewish Forum asked WhatsApp to intervene via Twitter: "How can this be prevented?"
A spokesman for WhatsApp told the "Bild" newspaper: "These anti-Semitic stickers are unacceptable and we do not want them in WhatsApp. We strongly condemn this hatred." Users would therefore be asked to report stickers with illegal content, so that the company could proceed against them - "up to blocking of accounts from which they are sent".