Matrix is great but when is the tech industry going to deal with the fact that many, if not all, bridges are against the respective services' ToS and subsequently put the developers of those bridges under legal risk? Whatsapp has already sent legal threats to multiple bridge-component level project maintainers without any recourse.
There's a fair amount of silly legislation that gets passed in the EU, but forward-thinking (or maybe just here-thinking?) laws like these (and the GDPR!) make me glad I live here.
Yeah this is exactly what’s needed. At least in EU the driver is awake at the wheel. As the politicians slowly get more technically competent we’re seeing more effective regulation. As long as EU has influence, everyone else will also benefit since companies often stop doing the shitty thing globally, not just in the EU.
Lack of interop has been a huge problem that’s also gotten worse over time. To address such a broad and complex issue with general legislation is not easy, we still have to wait and see if it works as intended.
I'm aware of DMAs regs but it forces Whatsapp within 6 months to start enabling interoperability. However it doesn't provide protection for these existing bridge projects.
open-wa, Baileys, invidious devs are all in the dark as to whether or not they're Scott free from their respective C&Ds due to this legislation.
I strongly believe users should be able to automate and interact with their accounts through whatever clients they wish however I think blocks/bans/technical countermeasures is fair game.
Count yourself lucky for not having an undeterminable, unfightable legal threat over your head from a $800bn mega corp.
