WhatsApp Messenger Used Widely In Italy, 50% Of Adulterous Divorce Involves Facebook's New $22MB Acquisition
A recent deal by Facebook acquired messaging service WhatsApp for a whopping $22 million. At the time of the takeover, Facebook did not know what it was going to do what it was going to do with it for six months. Mark Zuckerman thought he might just spin it off if there was no profit to be made. But the highly used social app has taken a new twist after reports say that a Saudi man has divorced his wife over unattended WhatsApp messages from him.
Facebook has just upgraded its WhatsApp messenger service in order for it to be used just like the Facebook Messenger, letting a user know if the messages were read by the recipient,
After the Facebook-WhatsApp update took place, a man from Saudi Arabia was able ble to see that his wife had repeatedly seen his messages and did not answer them. Reports say that the man failed to clarify the matter with others on the messaging app.
Local reports described the woman as being too busy to answer her husbands messages as she "spent most of her time on the phone to the point that she neglected looking after their home and taking care of their child," Kioskia.net reported.
According to the Al Weam newspaper, the wife was saw the messages but failed to answer them. "He thought there was something wrong. He rushed home and found her watching television. When he asked her why she did not respond, she said she was busy chatting with her friends on WhatsApp and wanted to reply later. He divorced her instantly," said the local paper. The couple had been married for two years.
Social media including Facebook, WhatsApp, is now becoming a popular medium for divorce and extramarital affairs. "In Italy, the Italian Association of Matrimonial Lawyers reported that nearly half of all adulterous divorce cases involve WhatsApp," Kioskea reports.
"Lovers can now exchange risqué photos of themselves, and we have seen adulterers using the service to maintain three or four relationships - it's like dynamite," said Gian Ettore Gassani, president of the association. "Social media has boosted betrayal in Italy by making it easier, first through texting, then Facebook, and now WhatsApp, which is being used widely and has encouraged the return of the Latin lover," adds the report.
