Ireland questions FB’s plan to merge Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp

London: A key EU government watchdog is demanding answers from Facebook over its plan to merge its messaging apps London: A key European data protection watchdog is demanding answers from Facebook over its plans to partially merge Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, which is responsible for regulating Facebook across the EU, has asked Facebook for an “urgent briefing” on the proposals, it said in a statement released on Monday.

Last week, The New York Times reported that CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to combine the back-ends of its three most popular messaging services. They would still exist as three separate apps, but it would mean a user on one app could message someone on one of the others — something that isn't currently possible.


Facebook subsequently confirmed the news, saying in a statement that “we're working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks”.