Facebook is accused of blocking advertisements by WhatsApp rival Hike Messenger. Facebook offers an option to its advertisers to ‘send people to the relevant product’ website. Hike, in particular, is blocked from using this option. However, Facebook hasn’t blocked Hike from using other options. Facebook blocked all ads that enabled people to visit Hike’s website.
Hike, a startup based in India, initially assumed that it could be a technical error and can be easily solved by contacting Facebook. However, the response from the social media giant turned out to be negative.
Hike confirmed that Facebook blocked them from using the option. Facebook in its reply stated that some specific products and services cannot be advertised on Facebook and Hike is one of them. In its response, Facebook firmly said that Hike will not be able to run the ads on its platform.
Recently, Facebook deliberately blocked the links to its rival messaging app Telegram on the Android platform. Hence, users were unable to share Telegram app related URLs during chat conversations.
However, users who worked with the app using iOS platform were not affected. It was followed by the similar news reported by orat.io, a mobile startup.
We believe that this kind of unfair practice is done to curb the popularity of the possible rivals of Facebook. However, it is up to the people to decide which messaging app to be used. Users can’t be blamed if they migrate to Hike.
