WHATSAPP to clamp down on 'sinister' messages in India...
WhatsApp to clamp down on 'sinister' messages in India:
IT minister
By Aditya Kalra AUGUST 21, 2018 1:48 AM
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said Facebook-owned WhatsApp
had pledged on Tuesday to develop tools that would combat fake messages, to
help the country crack down on people whipping up public anger through mass
message forwards on social media.
WhatsApp chief executive officer Chris Daniels gave the
assurance to India’s information technology minister during a meeting in New
Delhi.
IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had asked the company to
work out ways to trace the origin of “sinister” messages, like those that led
to a series of mob beatings across the country this year.
“It does not need rocket science to locate a message,”
Prasad said after his meeting, adding that the U.S. tech giant had agreed to
name a grievance officer to deal with issues in India.
A Facebook spokeswoman in India did not respond to a
request for comment.
India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with more than 200 million
users and one where it says people forward more messages, photographs and
videos than any other country.
There are also concerns that supporters of political
parties could use social media platforms such as WhatsApp to spread false
messages in the run-up to India’s national elections in 2019.
In July, WhatsApp said message forwards will be limited
to five chats at a time, whether among individuals or groups, and said it will
remove the quick forward button placed next to media messages.
IT minister Prasad also said WhatsApp was working with
law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem and was planning a big campaign
to educate consumers about fake messages.
PAYMENTS ROW
WhatsApp will also comply with the Reserve Bank of
India’s (RBI) directive of April that said all payments firms operating in the
country should start storing data locally for “unfettered supervisory access”,
Prasad said.
The central bank is currently working on guidelines
related to the directive, which has drawn protest from companies such as
Mastercard, Visa and American Express who fear it would lead to higher costs of
setting up data centers in the country and weaken analysis of global fraud
detection patterns.
Lack of clarity over the RBI’s directive has delayed the
launch of WhatsApp inter-bank money transfer service in India, which it had
tested earlier this year, a source with direct knowledge previously told
Reuters.
Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani
& Simon Cameron-Moore
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