NEW DELHI, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – WhatsApp announced curbs on its
service in India on Friday in an effort to stop a spate of horrific lynchings
and to assuage government threats of legal action in its biggest market.
More than 20 people have been killed by mobs in the past two months across
the country after being accused of child kidnapping and other crimes in viral
messages circulated on WhatsApp.
The Facebook-owned firm said on Friday that in India it will test limiting
the ability of users to forward messages, and will also experiment with a
lower limit of five chats at once.
It addition, it said it will “remove the quick forward button next to media
messages,” a statement said.
“We believe that these changes — which we’ll continue to evaluate — will
help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app,”
it added.
Under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, the firm had
already announced new features to help users identify messages that have been
forwarded.
WhatsApp had also bought full-page adverts in Indian newspapers with tips
on how to spot misinformation.
But in a strongly worded statement released late Thursday, India’s
information technology ministry said the action taken was not enough.
“Rampant circulation of irresponsible messages in large volumes on their
platform have not been addressed adequately by WhatsApp,” the ministry said.
“When rumours and fake news get propagated by mischief-mongers, the medium
used for such propagation cannot evade responsibility and accountability,” it
said.
“If (WhatsApp) remain mute spectators they are liable to be treated as
abettors and thereafter face consequent legal action.”