Over the first three weeks of January, Telegram has gained 25 million users, and Signal has gained 7.5 million users globally, according to figures shared by the UK parliament’s home affairs committee.

This massive exodus was fueled by WhatsApp's poorly explained update to its terms of service.

The consequence was so severe that WhatsApp has been forced to delay the implementation of the new terms, which had been slated for February 8th, and launch a damage limitation campaign.

WhatsApp officials declare that the update was intended to do two things: enable a new set of features around business messaging, and “make clarifications and provide greater transparency” around the company’s pre-existing policies.

WhatsApp says there are no changes to our data sharing with Facebook anywhere in the world. But posts widely spread on WhatsApp claimed that the privacy policy instead gave the service the right to read users’ messages and hand the information over to its parent company Facebook.

WhatsApp had to announce a delay in the implementation of the new terms of service until 15 May.