WhatsApp will help Indian Govt to Stop Fake Messages, But Refuses to Trace Users

After IT Ministry of India demanded a crackdown on miscreants by social media websites especially WhatsApp, the company has agreed to cooperate with the ministry. WhatsApp has become a platform for the spread of provocative and fake content. However, it has denied that it would add a feature that would help to trace the origin of a message as this could endanger user's privacy. This move by WhatsApp is commendable considering the pressure it has faced from the government.

WhatsApp has a system in place so that it cannot access user's data due to messages being encrypted end-to-end. After refusing to trace origin of messages, the company has said that it will take other measures to reduce the spread of fake news on its platform. WhatsApp has decide to “block sources that generate objectionable content". Other measures include restricting the number of forwarded messages a user can send and indicating if a message has been forwarded so that the user can judge its credibility.

Last month, the IT ministry made a statement saying that platforms like WhatsApp were being abused to circulate content that could threaten the safety of the public. This has caused the Facebook-owned messaging service to take concrete measures.

Read more at indiatimes.com