WhatsApp has over 200 million users in India, so, India is easily its area of the highest gross market. So, when infamous ‘sinister’ content led to lynching, that is, killing someone for an alleged offense without the legal trial, of around 30 people, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and associate Government officials had to visit WhatsApp’s executive officers on a formal tone to trace and carry out an immediate action.
A kind of wrong, misleading information had been spreading widely and it was high time that Indian Government’s representatives took a proper, rigorous and strong step to curb such incidents in future later on.
When WhatsApp denied having the capability to unearth and ferret out the source of such a sinister message, apparently because of they didn’t want to breach any of the aims of security, then, the officials at Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced, “We have been asking them for traceability. They are non-committal on it but we are forcing this issue.”
WhatsApp’s Director Brian Hennessey took a firm stand and when pestered formally by the Indian Government, declared that they are taking the issue seriously and have realized the gravity of the consequences of circulation of the misinformation; they are working on the measures that will prevent any such occurrence in future.
He said, “WhatsApp regularly engages with the Government of India…We look forward to continued discussions on how we can work together on these common goals.”
The company is well-known for their encrypted message service and maintenance of security and has, therefore, taken certain measures which include:
- Ads which will make the users aware about the repercussions of such an incident which begins with untraceable wrong information.
- Roadshows which are in collaboration with Jio (Reliance Corp.).