The issue is that smoking is more or less an end in itself, as opposed to social media which is a... medium. You don't "social media", you use social media to c

The issue is that smoking is more or less an end in itself, as opposed to social media which is a... medium. You don't "social media", you use social media to communicate, which is the actual end. And that's where things can go wrong. A while ago there was a thread here on HN about how WhatsApp had got quite big in Brazil. The particular thing I remember was that apparently, in some school districts, you'd have to be on WhatsApp to get information about your kids' school. If not mistaken, this was at the time when the new privacy policy was being rolled out, with threats of being cut off from the service if you didn't accept it. The school can only communicate via so many platforms, and they're likely to choose the biggest ones in their area. So when you're banned, or for some other reason can't or won't go on them, then it's a problem. Of course, the bigger point is that maybe this kind of services shouldn't transit only through social media but should be available in an open way, but I won't hold my breath, at least for the time being.