Messaging application WhatsApp wrote to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Wednesday, saying it was horrified by the terrible acts of violence that have occurred because of misinformation spread through the app, The Indian Express reported.
The ministry on Tuesday asked the messaging platform to initiate measures to prevent the spread of “explosive messages” and warned it against accountability and responsibility.
“Like the government of India, we are horrified by these terrible acts of violence and wanted to respond quickly to the very important issues you have raised,” the company said in its response. “We believe this is a challenge that requires government, civil society, and technology companies to work together.”
WhatsApp said it was testing a new label in India that would let a user know if a message has been forwarded or composed by the sender, IANS reported, quoting from the letter. “This could serve as an important signal for recipients to think twice before forwarding messages because it lets a user know if the content they received was written by the person they know or a potential rumour from someone else,” the company added.
The company pointed out that it has also launched a feature that stops people from adding people back to groups they had left. “Last week, we launched a new setting that enables administrators to decide who gets to send messages within individual groups,” said the app, which has 200 million active users in the country. “This will help reduce the spread of unwanted messages into important group conversations, as well as the forwarding of hoaxes and other content.”
WhatsApp also announced a new project to work with leading academic experts to learn more about the spread of misinformation. “The fact-checking organisation Boom Live is available on WhatsApp and has published some reports on the source of the rumours that have contributed to the recent violence,” the company said.
The company also asked the government to let it know about the actions it is taking to fight misinformation and its plans going forward. “With the right action we can help improve everyone’s safety by ensuring communities are better equipped to deal with malicious hoaxes and false information – while still enabling people to communicate reliably and privately across India,” the company noted.
WhatsApp also announced that it would soon begin an engagement programme with law enforcement officials across India so “they are familiar with our approach and how we can be helpful”.
Over the past month, several incidents of mob violence following rumours on social media have been reported across the country, leading to assaults and murders. In the most recent case, a mob killed five people suspecting them to be part of a gang of “child lifters” in Maharashtra’s Dhule district. On June 26, a mob beat to death a 40-year-old woman in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on the suspicion that she was a kidnapper. Three people, including a man hired by the government to spread awareness against rumours of child-lifting, were killed in Tripura at the end of June.
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