WhatsApp has recently released a new feature, called Channels. It functions fairly similar to Channels on Telegram, and it is effectively a one-way communication channel you can subscribe to. You cannot comment on posts made, but you can give emoji reactions to posts. So far, it is mainly used by large corporate entities, with some of the biggest channels that are suggested to me being Netflix (22.5M followers on their Channel), or Real Madrid (19.6M followers).

The quality of information on X has deteriorated rapidly during the current Israel-Hamas war. Some good reporting on the amount of misinformation can be found here. What I find interesting is ways that news outlets are experimenting with other ways of reaching people with their reporting. In that light, the Financial Times launched a WhatsApp Channel for reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, which gives a daily free update in English with the latest information.

War drives innovation, and nowadays our digital information space has proven to be a battle ground. The Financial Times has been willing to experiment with new digital communications, such as their short-lived experiment at running their own Mastodon server. Now they are back again with another experiment, and I’m curious how this one will go.