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. In fact, its wide usage has become one of its main points of attraction; users benefit from the fact that many of their friends, family members and colleagues are on this platform. The more people use Whatsapp, the more attractive it becomes as a chat service.