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Journalism of Courage
THE GOVERNMENT has urged Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp to establish a local set-up in India, including a grievance centre and a facility to store financial data locally.
Following a 45-minute meeting Tuesday between visiting WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels and Union Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad, the chief of the messaging platform was explicitly told that the government “will not appreciate a scenario where any problem that has risen in India is answered to only in America”. WhatsApp has over 250 million users in India.
Prasad said he had told Daniels to implement three measures. “You must have a grievance system in India and a whole system where people can reach you immediately. Secondly, you must have proper compliance of Indian laws. We will not appreciate a scenario where any problem that has risen in India is answered to only in America. Thirdly, WhatsApp having become an important component of India’s digital story must have a proper corporate entity located in India. He (Daniels) assured that the company will soon follow these. He said that we are working with law enforcement agencies to develop a system,” Prasad said.
READ | India’s checklist for WhatsApp: Need grievance system, follow Indian laws, setup Indian entity
WhatsApp’s plans for a full rollout of its payments services were also discussed at the meeting. The Government said that it had flagged its concerns, particularly about local storage of data, with the RBI. Prasad added that WhatsApp told the government that the company was engaging with law enforcement agencies to develop systems to counter spreading of fake news.
“I complimented him for the extraordinary technological awakening that WhatsApp has led in the entire country for education, healthcare, information about agriculture and farming. These are very positive developments. There also certain sinister developments which are provoking crimes such as mob lynching, like revenge porn and you must find solutions for these challenges that are downright criminal,” Prasad said.
Daniels was accompanied by Facebook’s Public Policy Director — India, South & Central Asia Ankhi Das. Over the last few months, WhatsApp has been sounded several times by the Government in its attempt on crack down on fake news.
Express Explained | Why rumours love WhatsApp
The Government had also issued a notice to the messaging company, which has outlined initiatives to curb fake news circulation including education and advocacy efforts. But the Union Minister noted that the measures did not meet the Government’s expectations on ‘traceability’ and attribution of such messages. “I flagged in particular, which I had said earlier also, it does not take rocket science to locate a message being circulated in hundreds and thousands… you must have a mechanism to find a solution,” he said, adding that WhatsApp could face abetment charges if no action is taken.
On July 19, the Government had sent a notice to WhatsApp suggesting that they would be liable for legal action “if they remain mute spectators” when rumours and fake news get propagated through these platforms. This notice had come in the light of a software engineer being lynched by a mob over child lifting rumours that were spread on social media, including WhatsApp, in Bidar in Karnataka.
Read | WhatsApp’s fight against fake news: Top new features it has taken to stop misinformation
On July 3, the IT ministry had written to WhatsApp seeking immediate steps to tackle the misuse of their platform “wherein inflammatory messages were circulated that led to unfortunate incidents”. On the same day, WhatsApp had indicated their initiative to mark forwarded messages and to step up efforts to detect fake news.
However, in the second notice, the government pointed out that these efforts were not enough. Apart from the features on its app, WhatsApp earlier this month expanded its user education campaign on how to spot fake news and hoaxes.
The company published a video explaining the importance of the “forward” label and asked users to “double check the facts when you’re not sure who created the original message”. Prasad will visit Silicon Valley in the US this week, where he is expected to speak with Indian professionals working there. He is also likely to visit the campus of technology giant Google and meet the faculty of Stanford University.
