Whatsapp scandal before polls? Likely, say experts

NEWDELHI: Instant messaging service Whatsapp will have to put more safeguards in place to avoid its misuse in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,experts say. Some point to the experience in the recent elections in Brazil,where the Facebook-owned platform battled allegations on its use to influence the popular vote, with masswhatsapp messages pushing anti-leftist propaganda.

“There is no easy way to say this but the likelihood of a Whatsapp scandal in the run-up to the 2019 elections in India is imminent. I won’t be surprised if there is already something similar taking place in India. That’s because there is no way to control the message that is being shared on the platform. The only way to stop

this is by revoking the end-to-end encryption which will impair the privacy Whatsapp users enjoy,” said lawyer Rahul Matthan, partner at the law firm Trilegal and

author of Privacy 2.0, which traces the historic origin and current debates on privacy.

Whatsapp has over 200 million users in India, its largest market. The absence of a data protection law in India only adds to this problem, although this transcends Whatsapp. “The large scale sale of phone numbers, and subsequent bombardment of messages, without seeking consent is also a reminder that we urgently need rules to limit the use of personal data for political campaigns. Europe’s law, the GDPR, puts strict limits on direct marketing, including by political parties and campaigners. Yet India is approaching its own elections without any effective data protection rules in place,” said Amba Kak, public policy adviser at web browser Mozilla.

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