Perhaps it has something to do with the thinking Europe’s so-called “right to be forgotten”?

You’ve hit the nail on the head here as to why such things doesn’t make sense. It infringes on other users’ rights to property and control over their devices.

Deleting someone’s chat is as much an exercise of your right to privacy as is breaking into their house to retrieve the love letter you sent so you can put it in the shredder or using alien mind control techniques to erase your colleagues’ memories of that time you got too drunk at a holiday party and made a fool of yourself.