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I think OP is deleting WhatsApp because Facebook is the parent company. But I agree, WhatsApp is not a social network site but a messaging tool.

A messaging tool is by definition a social network.

That's it. The clincher for me was when they announced that they would be starting to share user data from WhatsApp with parent company Facebook for ad targeting purposes.

Yes. you are missing the part where it's used for surveillance, for collecting personal data and exploiting it, for giving a false sense of security, and so on.

Basically facebook being facebook and doing facebook things to the people that were escaping its grasp.

Citation needed.

Here you go, sorry for TechCrunch link:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/25/whatsapp-to-share-user-dat...

edit: Here's some better links from @bigbugbag down below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp_snooping_scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_Wha...

I think it's mostly that it's easier and more common to make larger groups, which then inevitably end up being a lot noisier.