Clearly parliamentarians thought important information was being shared on these platforms that the public needed to know about.
In a rather telling move, the government refused to comply with the request.
Political groups are increasingly alert to the potential of messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram for operating closed communities.
Shortly after the referendum, key ERG leaderscame together in a WhatsApp chat group.
The then chairman of what was still alittle-known organization, Steve Baker, became an administrator of the group.
Some would argue that its actions ultimately helped to thwart Theresa Mays attempts toget her Brexit deal through parliament.
The ERG voted , again and again, to block her deal, denying her the votes she needed.
This was quite an achievement for an organization largely made up of backbenchers.
Many similar WhatsApp groups now exist in parliament.
They unite MPs of different parties that range from Labour factions to the One Nation group of moderate Tories.
A traditional party has a leader and a whip; a WhatsApp group has an administrator.
A new breed of operative, therefore, wields significant power.
In the traditional sense of party structures, Steve Baker, for example, is not a leading politician.
However, social movements are not the same as elected representatives.
This is because messaging platforms like WhatsApp are encrypted and designed as extremely private spaces.
There can be benefits to encryption of course.
Protest movements depend on this security to protect themselves from the threat posed by undemocratic states.
But elected politicians should not abuse the capabilities of digital media like the encryption mechanisms of platforms.
Otherwise, society risks losing track of government communications related to important matters such as Brexit.
The history can be deleted or hidden away in private company servers.
While Downing Streets confidential memos on the prorogationwere eventually released, such digital communications remain out of reach.
The other problem here is that government business is increasingly conducted on the communication platforms of private companies.
What power does this give Whatsapp, and its parent company Facebook, over the communications of our governments?
We still know relatively little about how messaging platforms are reshaping parties internal operations.
