I appreciate your quandary, but I wonder if most people realise how little explicit profile data WhatsApp has for its users. It doesn’t have a name, country of

I appreciate your quandary, but I wonder if most people realise how little explicit profile data WhatsApp has for its users. It doesn’t have a name, country of residence, ... anything really. Just a phone number. I know looking at a phone number’s country code is imperfect, but pretty much every other method is problematic too. * the most explicit would be for EU residents to contact WhatsApp with proof of residency. Unfortunately it creates a vast bureaucracy and most people should be wary of sharing scans of their documents, with Facebook of all companies. * The WhatsApp app could look at which network the phone it’s on is connected to. If it’s a EU network (say connected to a EU network for 6+ months to filter out tourists), protections could apply, but I this would probably adversely impact EU nationals in non-EU countries. So yes, a number of options are possible, each have pros and cons. How far Facebook would go would depend on regulatory direction, almost certainly.