In practice this is not that much different to what went before except that things happen more quickly.

Before people would go down the pub and have a discussion or in the corridor.

Things were never all discussed through official channels.

Now actually is probably more transparent as some of the WhatsApp messages are leaked and people can't deny them.

I'm certain that people will take an emotional reaction to what you've written, but I just want to be the first to say that I think you're right.

"Whatsapp" is the new "talking to the person in the corridor" or "having a quick chat down the pub", it's not the new email, and having them leak is ironically the most accountability we've seen.

I'll use an example of someone I support generally now: Tony Blair was accused of having backroom discussions regarding the invasion of Iraq and secret meetings away from even his cabinet[0]. Since we only have hearsay of what went on, it's very difficult to hold him accountable for this.

[0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-12306377

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dabeeeenster 2 days ago | parent [-]

From what I read, huge decisions were taken over whatsapp, particularly with regard to Covid policy. This wasn't "go for a pint, have a chat" type work.

If it was up to me, using whatsapp for ANY govt business should be an instant sackable offence. I don't conduct my company business on whatsapp. I conduct it on mainly slack and email. Its not hard.

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ses1984 a day ago | parent [-]

You don’t think most huge decisions are discussed over back channels in addition to or before moving to official channels?

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FridayoLeary a day ago | parent [-]

Actually the entire theme of Yes Minister, one of the best parodies of how the government is run is that not a single important decision or discussion is had in a public forum. Many episodes involve burying particularly incriminating official records.

	▲	pasc1878 a day ago \| parent [-]
		Not only that when learning business one comment made was Decisions are not made in meetings they are made in discussions before the meetings. Going into a meeting and thinking that your comments will change things is being naive. From that the thing to be learnt is that you have to have off the record meetings first to convince the powers that be. Now at least some of these meetings are recorded via WhatsApp and leaks before they never were. Also see how IBM and Oracle get business - they take the senior C level managers out to lunch or golf and persuade them. They don't bother talking to the people who could evaluate if it was a good deal technically.