Normally, when you feel you’re getting the short end of a stick, for example when the supermarket sells you expensive mushy cauliflowers, or when the organization you volunteer at treats you disrespectfully, you go and find what you need somewhere else. This ability to “defect” to an alternative when you feel you’re not getting a good deal, is an important “power” that helps you get reasonable deals.1 When it comes to the way we relate to each other digitally, arguably one of the main ways in which we relate these days, we do not have that luxury.

Upon arrival at AUC, first year students are invited to join a WhatsApp group of their cohort. Doing so, we feel AUC fails to live up to its responsibility to help students, where possible, find and build a private, safe, (digital) world, devoid of unnecessary commercial interests that might be (or evolve to become) at odds with the interests of the students themselves. In some parts of the world, including in the Netherlands, WhatsApp has become the most widely used chat service, both for personal and work related purposes.