I get what you're going through. The same is true for my country. However, I understood very early on that I needed to do something about it, because just "following the rest" is the reason why all these companies are getting away with their surveillance and making truckload of money with our data without our consent.
Fast forward to today, and I have not used WhatsApp in over 8 years. My communication with my wife, my business partner and 1 of my friends is done exclusively over Session, the rest is over Signal. Anyone not on those platforms, good luck trying to reach me.
If we ever want things to change, we have to risk losing communication with some people. Those that consider you important won't mind adding another messaging app to their phones.