₹1,000 tool helps beat WhatsApp spam measures
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: WhatsApp clones and software tools that cost as little as $14 (₹1,000) are helping Indian digital marketers and political activists bypass anti-spam restrictions set up by the world’s most popular messaging app, Reuters has found. The activities highlight the challenges WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, faces in preventing abuse in India, its biggest market.
WhatsApp clones and software tools that cost as little as $14 (₹1,000) are helping Indian digital marketers and political activists bypass anti-spam restrictions set up by the world’s most popular messaging app, Reuters has found.
The activities highlight the challenges WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, faces in preventing abuse in India, its biggest market with more than 200 million users.
With fervent campaigning in India’s staggered general elections, which conclude on May 19, the demand for such tools has surged, according to digital companies and people familiar with the matter in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its main rival, the Congress party.
After false messages on WhatsApp last year allegedly sparked mob lynchings in India, the company restricted forwarding of a message to only five users. The software tools appear to overcome those restrictions, allowing users to reach thousands of people at once.
Divya Spandana, the social media chief of the Congress, and the BJP’s IT head, Amit Malviya, did not respond to requests for comment.
Rohitash Repswal, who owns a digital marketing business in a cramped, residential neighbourhood of New Delhi, said he ran a ₹1,000 piece of software roundthe-clock in recent months to send up to 100,000 WhatsApp messages a day on behalf of two BJP members.
Reuters found WhatsApp has been misused in at least three ways during the ongoing campaign: free clone apps available online were used by some BJP and Congress workers to manually forward messages on a mass basis; software tools which allow users to automate delivery of WhatsApp messages; and some firms offering political workers the chance to go onto a website and send bulk WhatsApp messages from anonymous numbers.
At least three software tools were available on Amazon.in. When purchased by a Reuters reporter, they arrived as CDs tucked inside thin cardboard casings, with no company branding.