The Indian government is looking serious towards fake news and hoaxes that are being spread across the country with the help of internet. WhatsApp mainly is the most popular platform where people share rumors and forward it to their contacts without even having any idea about the source of information they are sharing.
To avoid violence created by WhatsApp posts, the government had asked the company to allow the authority to trace and find the origins of messages on the platform. WhatsApp refused to this saying it would violate its privacy protocol. Even if the company agrees on changing its end-to-end encryption, it would have an adverse impact on the security of the entire system.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT isn’t pleased about this and is looking to send another official letter to WhatsApp, its 3rd since July, reminding WhatsApp about the risk of being banned from the country.
WhatsApp has introduced multiple changes in its options such as limiting forwards to five groups at a time instead of the earlier 250. One can easily see the forwarded mark on messages and has even started a radio public awareness campaign against fake news.
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Senior government officials believe that this isn’t enough.
“We are not asking them to look into the contents of the message, but if some message has been forwarded, say, 100 times and has caused some law and order problem, then they should be able to identify where it originated from,”
one official said.
It looks like a great opportunity to other local players in the market if they can provide better security and functions like WhatsApp. What’s your take on this? Do let us know in comments.
