Dutch government tests European messaging app to reduce reliance on WhatsApp

State Secretary Willemijn Aerdts, responsible for Digital Economy and Sovereignty for D66, warns that reliance on foreign messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal poses a risk to the government. Her ministry has launched a pilot project with a European alternative as a first step, with the long-term goal of adopting a messaging platform fully controlled by the Dutch government.

Throughout the pilot phase, the state secretary and a select group of officials will use the alternative messaging platform to communicate. Her spokesperson declined to disclose which European app is involved, noting that the project is still in its infancy.

"At present, much of our communication relies on platforms beyond our control. In a world where technology is more and more used as an instrument of power, that poses a risk," the minister said.

Reports this week revealed that Belgian civil servants will be banned from using WhatsApp and Messenger as of next week. De Standaard reports they are expected to transition to the government-developed app Beam, which was already adopted last week by the country’s military and intelligence agencies.

While the spokesperson remains tight-lipped, ICT sector sources have suggested in the past that the Matrix protocol, commonly used through the app Element, is being used. This open standard is also adopted by the German and French governments, where it operates under the name Tchap.

A key reason for developing an in-house system is archiving. Retrieving WhatsApp messages under the Open Government Act (Woo) has proven challenging, previously sparking political controversy, such as in the case of Mark Rutte’s ‘Nokia phones.’ A dedicated government app could automatically store metadata and relevant conversations for archival purposes

In 2023, the Government Advocate already warned that WhatsApp is unsuitable for official government decision-making, citing privacy concerns under the GDPR and the potential for U.S. authorities to access data from American companies through the Cloud Act.