Govt seeks Whatsapp location, identity of fake message sender
NEW DELHI: IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said Whatsapp vice president Chris Daniels has said the instant messaging platform will look into identifying the location and identity of senders of messages that lead to provocation, heinous offences and serious crimes.
“On the issue of traceability, I emphasized that we don’t talk of decrypting the message. But we insist on the location and identification of the sender of the Whatsapp message, when the message leads to provocation of violence, heinous offences and other serious crimes,” Prasad said. “He heard us, and has said we’ll look into the matter and revert.”
This is the third time the government is spelling out its expectations of Whatsapp since July this year, after a spate of lynchings allegedly motivated by rumour-mongering messages on the platform.
The government shot two letters to Whatsapp in July asking the firm to come up with solutions to prevent the spread of fake messages. The company declined to entertain any request to decrypt or read messages as it would undermine user privacy.
WHATSAPP IS WORKING WITH THE GOVERNMENT
The IT minister also said that the firm is working with the ministry.
“We are working in close cooperation. We also particularly emphasized that Whatsapp being an important instrument of message-circulation during elections, it is very appropriate and desirable that the institutional integrity of the platform is maintained, so that abusers are unable to abuse it,” Prasad said.
“They have assured that they will work with the ministry in preventing the circulation of ‘spam farms’, misuse by third parties, like it happened in Brazil,” he added, referring to the several Whatsapp groups (spam farms) created in Brazil in the run-up to the recently-concluded presidential elections.
GRIEVANCE OFFICER
In September, Whatsapp had appointed Us-based grievance officer, Komal Lahiri, for India. But Prasad insisted on Whatsapp appointing a grievance officer based in India. The grievance officer is important for receiving complaints about the service from law enforcement, users, and other government officials. The government said it wants Whatsapp to have a corporate entity and the grievance officer in the country so that the company would be answerable to Indian laws.
After a meeting with Prasad on Wednesday, private messaging service Whatsapp in a statement said, “We appreciate the opportunity to meet with government leaders, including minister Prasad who confirmed his support for encryption and the privacy of our users. Whatsapp is deeply committed to serving the people of India and working closely with civil society and government leaders to help address abuse on our platform. Our new head of Whatsapp India, who will be named by the end of the year, will build a local team that can serve our customers in India as well as work with partners and government leaders to help keep people safe,” said a Whatsapp spokesperson.
Whatsapp comment awaited. is