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India lynchings: WhatsApp sets new rules after mob killings [Update #34]

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Indian police have arrested 16 people after two men became the latest victims of hysteria over WhatsApp rumours of child kidnappers.

The men had stopped to ask directions in north-eastern Assam state when they were beaten to death by a large mob.

Rumours of child kidnappings are spreading across India over WhatsApp, and have already led to the deaths of seven other people in the past month.

Police say it is proving hard to debunk the messages on social media.

The two latest victims have been identified as Nilotpal Das, an audio engineer and Abijeet Nath, a digital artist - both residents of Guwahati, the largest city in Assam.

Police say the pair were attacked when they stopped at a village to ask for directions. Residents reportedly believed they were "kidnappers" they had been warned about on WhatsApp.

India woman beaten to death over child abduction rumours
The people trying to fight fake news in India
A video of the attack went viral over the weekend, where one of the men can be seen pleading for his life. On Sunday, students and activists filled the streets of Guwahati to protest against the killings.

What is fuelling the rumours?
People are citing a video that is being spread on WhatsApp that purportedly shows a child being abducted.

In Bangalore, where two people were killed last month, a local showed BBC correspondent Dan Johnson the video on his mobile phone. In it, two men on a motorcycle pull up to a group of children. One of them grabs a child and they ride off.

But the video is not real. It's not even from India. An unedited version of the video shows it is a child safety film from Pakistan, designed to create awareness. The last segment of the video, which shows one of the men holding up a sign that explains the incident, has been edited out in the version being spread on WhatsApp.

The video is accompanied by text messages that talk about "kidnappers" arriving in the city with the aim of snatching children.

Though it was initially spread via the messaging app, the panic was further fuelled when some regional media channels picked up the rumours, lending them credibility.

This has prompted locals to attack those who look unfamiliar or cannot speak the regional language.

What are the authorities doing about this?
"When rumours start circulating on social media, it takes some time to stop them completely," senior Assam police official Mukesh Agarwal told BBC Hindi's Dilip Kumar Sharma, adding that police were watching various social media sites to try to stop the spread of the messages.

Officials elsewhere in India have urged people not to believe messages linked to child abductions.

Last month, police in the southern city of Hyderabad marched alongside residents with loudspeakers chanting "don't believe the rumours".

In Tamil Nadu state, where a string of violent incidents has been reported in recent months, authorities have begun awareness drives to counter the rumours.

In other southern states like Karnataka, police have set up social media control rooms from where they monitor posts, viral messages and videos.

Police in Telangana have issued warnings and have also arrested people who circulated false video messages online.

So far, officials are yet to find any incidents of child abduction related to the spate of messages and videos being shared online.

Deaths linked to WhatsApp rumours
April: A man in the southern state of Tamil Nadu is beaten to death by a mob after he is seen aimlessly wandering the streets

May:

A 55-year old woman in Tamil Nadu is lynched for giving sweets to children; police arrest 30 people
A man in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh is lynched for speaking Hindi and not the local language, Telugu
A man in neighbouring Telengana is killed by a mob while entering a mango orchard at night
Another man in Telengana is lynched when visiting a village to see his relatives
A man in the southern city of Bangalore, who had moved there recently, is tied up with rope and beaten to death with cricket bats
A transgender woman is lynched in Hyderabad
June: Two men are lynched in north-eastern Assam after stopping their car to ask for directions

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44435127
 
Mob lynchings in India :facepalm:
 
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Somewhere some place there will be someone sat behind their smartphone chuckling to themselves at the carnage they're causing. Won't be surprised to see the Indian Govt ban Whatsapp altogether, like they did trial by juries.
 
Rafa said:
Mob lynchings in India :facepalm:
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When people have no faith in justice system, they resort to these things. They think a quick thrashing is all it needs and they beat the victim to death. There are lots of videos on Youtube about these mob attacks and vigilante justice.

Also, when mobs attack, it is hard for police to arrest the attackers. People think they can get away easily. A dangerous trend in the country.
 
troodon said:
When people have no faith in justice system, they resort to these things. They think a quick thrashing is all it needs and they beat the victim to death. There are lots of videos on Youtube about these mob attacks and vigilante justice.

Also, when mobs attack, it is hard for police to arrest the attackers. People think they can get away easily. A dangerous trend in the country.
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Don't think it's that. They think they are above the law and also think they won't be personally prosecuted if they are part of a mob. Desis are very emotional people and things escalate very fast when it comes to mob justice.
 
It feels like social media is doing more harm than good. It's always stupid content that goes viral.
 
Oh God this is horrible.I remember a couple of years ago,there were many rumors of child kidnappings in Karachi,spread by social media.However it was proved that those were all a hoax.However it spread mass hysteria.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A video of a child apparently getting kidnapped has gone viral in India, leading people to attack strangers<br><br>(Caution: contains distressing images) <a href="https://t.co/emJKL9FhzC">https://t.co/emJKL9FhzC</a> <a href="https://t.co/LsdMIHE8Yo">pic.twitter.com/LsdMIHE8Yo</a></p>— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1011567471726350336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
So called Mob “justice” - 5 innocent beggars bludgeoned to death with sticks & stones in Maharashtra

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotMyIndia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NotMyIndia</a>: 5 men beaten & bludgeoned to death by blood thirsty mob in Dhule, Maharashtra on suspicion of child theft. 17 people arrested. <a href="https://t.co/Iin6A92XFT">pic.twitter.com/Iin6A92XFT</a></p>— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/MirrorNow/status/1013625656192585728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis announces a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the Dhule lynching victims, says “Sources of such false rumours will be looked into’ <a href="https://t.co/lOE9MKSgTo">pic.twitter.com/lOE9MKSgTo</a></p>— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1013740142224265216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a> -- Five people lynched to death in Maharashtra's Dhule district on suspicion of being child kidnappers <a href="https://t.co/GG2TnKpXM8">pic.twitter.com/GG2TnKpXM8</a></p>— News18 (@CNNnews18) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNnews18/status/1013388264055566337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Viral: Fake news of march by Muslims demanding release of Mandsaur rape accused <a href="https://t.co/fZR1Hsib8A">https://t.co/fZR1Hsib8A</a></p>— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) <a href="https://twitter.com/free_thinker/status/1013771667279998976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
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It's got nothing to do with children, beef etc. Just psychopathic, bloodthirsty cowards feeling invincible in a crowd. Same is in Pakistan and any other third world countries too. Westerners would do it too if they thought they could get away with it as seen in the past. Basic human empathy is hard to teach. Either you have it or you don't.
 
DeadBall said:
It's got nothing to do with children, beef etc. Just psychopathic, bloodthirsty cowards feeling invincible in a crowd. Same is in Pakistan and any other third world countries too. Westerners would do it too if they thought they could get away with it as seen in the past. Basic human empathy is hard to teach. Either you have it or you don't.
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It's the classic "mob mentality".

To be an outsider is too uncomfortable so people stand by or join in.
 
The subcontinent has a great tradition of mob justice.

1947 is a prime example.

Lots of justice hurting innocent defenseless women.

Why stop now right?
 
Mob justice is one the key indicators of how far a society has developed, and unfortunately, despite all the troves of data which patriots will bring to the table to show a country's economic advancement, the story is still bleak for India.
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
Mob justice is one the key indicators of how far a society has developed, and unfortunately, despite all the troves of data which patriots will bring to the table to show a country's economic advancement, the story is still bleak for India.
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Absolutely. The fact that it wasn't one person, but a mob's collective conscience allowing it to happen really does reflect upon a society's advancement.
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
Mob justice is one the key indicators of how far a society has developed, and unfortunately, despite all the troves of data which patriots will bring to the table to show a country's economic advancement, the story is still bleak for India.
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Harsh but true.
We still have a long way to go .
 
This is a big reason why we see so many hit and run cases here. Imagine walking out of the car to help, only to be mobbed by people itching to dish out instant justice.
 
BlackShadow said:
This is a big reason why we see so many hit and run cases here. Imagine walking out of the car to help, only to be mobbed by people itching to dish out instant justice.
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I still remember one of the key memories of life in Pakistan was when there was a road accident, usually it ended in the driver who felt he had been wronged, getting out of the vehicle and swinging punches at the other one. I used to think it was hilarious that you couldn't go on any road trip without seeing at least one fight.
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
I still remember one of the key memories of life in Pakistan was when there was a road accident, usually it ended in the driver who felt he had been wronged, getting out of the vehicle and swinging punches at the other one. I used to think it was hilarious that you couldn't go on any road trip without seeing at least one fight.
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Happens everywhere.

I was in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, and saw a small bump and horning result in one guy smashing a pipe on the other's bald head.

Horrific scenes that promoted me to never take up road rage.
 
India asks WhatsApp to curb spread of false messages

MUMBAI: India has asked Facebook-owned WhatsApp messenger to take steps to prevent the circulation of false texts and provocative content that have led to a series of lynchings and mob beatings across the country in the past few months.

With more than 200 million users in India, WhatsApp’s biggest market in the world, false news and videos circulating on the messaging app have become a new headache for social media giant Facebook, already grappling with a privacy scandal.

So far this year, false messages about child abductors on WhatsApp have helped to trigger mass beatings of more than a dozen people in India - at least three of whom have died.

In addition, five people were beaten to death by a mob on Sunday in a fresh incident of lynching in India’s western state of Maharashtra on suspicions that they were child abductors.

“Deep disapproval of such developments has been conveyed to the senior management of WhatsApp and they have been advised that necessary remedial measures should be taken,” India’s IT ministry said in a strongly-worded statement on Tuesday.

The ministry said law enforcement authorities were taking steps to apprehend culprits responsible for the killings but the repeated flow of fake news messages on WhatsApp was also a matter of deep concern.

It also said that messaging platform “cannot evade accountability and responsibility” when such services are abused by users to spread misinformation.

“The government has also conveyed in no uncertain terms that WhatsApp must take immediate action to end this menace and ensure that their platform is not used for such malafide activities,” it added.

WhatsApp said it does not want the platform to be used for spreading misinformation, adding the dissemination of false messages was a challenge that companies and society should address.

The firm also announced awards for researchers to explore misinformation related issues and share their proposals with the messaging service, its parent Facebook, academia and policymakers.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment on the government’s statement.

WhatsApp previously told Reuters that it is educating users to identify fake news as well as considering changes to the service. For example, there is now a public beta test that is labeling any forwarded message. Last week, it also introduced a new setting which allowed only the administrators or owners of groups to send messages.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/201808-india-asks-whatsapp-to-curb-spread-of-false-messages
 
The Times is also leading with this story in it's world news section. This is another embarrassing episode for India's image abroad.

The govt can try to shift the blame to Whatsapp, but the underlying problem is the mentality of Indians who are still displaying a medieval mindset which is commonly found in third world countries. Social media is good for progress in many ways, but the subcontinent isn't ready for it yet, these countries still believe in caste systems, curses, and horoscopes.
 
Jahil population + Social media is a recipe for disaster. Organised mob violence is becoming so easy these days.
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YegEun8lzZ4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Poor guys.
 
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Video That Unleashed A Lynch Mob In Dhule Was Of Dead Syrian Children

MUMBAI: One of the videos that led a mob beat five innocent men to death in Maharashtra's Dhule, was not even from India. The video showed rows of children's bodies. The narrative in Hindi said they were killed by gangs who wanted to harvest their organs. The video, however, was from Syria -- it showed children who had died in a nerve gas attack five years ago.
Jency Jacob, the Managing Editor of Boomlive.in, a website which had called out the video said, "This hails from 2013 from a nerve gas attack that had happened in Syria. The bodies that you see are of Syrian children".

"At that point of time, we had also done the story because there was another video of child kidnapping from Pakistan which has now become quite famous. Both these videos were going together," he added.

The tweaking of these fake videos that have so far caused more than 20 deaths across the country, appear flawlessly professional.

Another video that led to severe beating of two men in Malegaon, was made in Marathi describes a kidnapping attempt in Sakri town of Dhule described. The police say there is no record of any such kidnapping attempt taking place.

It is doing the rounds in Dhule, Nashik and Nandurbar - remote areas, which ironically, do not have mobile network. In Maharsahtra alone, 10 people have died.

The messages of these videos had gone home -- it started with a mob targeting a man who tried to speak to a six-year-old girl. The residents of Kakar Pada village had pounced on the men, threw stones at them and thrashed them with sticks and chappals.

Soon, a crowd of 3,000 had gathered from neighbouring villages. Over-riding the requests of a section of locals to hand over the men to the police, they thrashed them relentlessly. By the time the police reached, all five were dead.

While 23 people have been arrested for the crime, the police are still clueless about the men responsible for circulating such fake videos.

Today, after the centre asked states to curb such incidents of violence that have headlined across the world, the Devendra Fadnavis government asked the police to infiltrate WhatsApp groups while being undercover.

COMMENT
The police say they are trying to trace who produced the locally made video. Unofficially, a police source said they are already actively monitoring WhatsApp to ensure fake news is tackled before it actually kills.
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https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/vid...-in-dhule-was-of-dead-syrian-children-1878688
 
India lynchings: WhatsApp sets new rules after mob killings

WhatsApp has said it will limit how many times messages can be forwarded in India, to curb the spread of false information on its platform.

The announcement comes after a spate of mob lynchings were linked to messages that circulated on WhatsApp groups.

The government on Thursday reissued a warning to the company that it could face legal consequences if it remained a "mute spectator".

With more than 200 million users, India is WhatsApp's biggest market.

WhatsApp said its users in India "forward more messages, photos, and videos, than any other country in the world".

Groups on WhatsApp can have a maximum of 256 people. Many of the messages that are believed to have triggered violence were forwarded to multiple groups which had more than 100 members each.

In a blog published on its website, the company announced that it was "launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone using WhatsApp".

For Indian users, however, the forwarding option will be limited even further. A WhatsApp spokesperson for India told the BBC that this means a single person would be able to forward one message only five times.

However, this does not stop other members from a group from forwarding the message to a further five chats of their own.

WhatsApp added that they hoped this measure would curb the frequency of messages being forwarded.

The company also said it would be removing the "quick forward button" next to messages containing pictures or video.

These changes come in the wake of a series of mob lynchings that have seen at least 18 people killed across India since April 2018. Media reports put the number of dead higher.

The violence has been blamed on rumours of child kidnappings, spread over WhatsApp, which have led people to attack strangers.

Police say it is proving hard to get people to believe that the messages are false.

In a recent lynching in the north-eastern state of Tripura, the victim was a man employed by the local government to go around villages to dispel rumours being spread on social media.

India's federal government had earlier warned WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned company, that it could not evade "accountability and responsibility" for the content its users were sharing.

WhatsApp had responded by saying it was "horrified by these terrible acts of violence", and that the situation was a "challenge that requires government, civil society and technology companies to work together".

The messaging app is the single largest internet-based service available to people in India. It has tremendous reach, allowing messages to spread exponentially and enabling mobs to gather quickly.

Earlier this month, the company outlined steps it was taking to help address the problem, which included enabling users to leave groups and block people more easily.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44897714
 
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Another day,another lynching-this time in Rajasthan .
India is rapidly degenerating into a very vile and sick country.
 
kabbirann said:
Another day,another lynching-this time in Rajasthan .
India is rapidly degenerating into a very vile and sick country.
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It is just a law and order problem and misuse of technology by a handful of people. Nothing alarming which cannot be solved with some will power.
 
Indians are still learning how to digest social media, third world populations don't always have the capacity to understand the concept of fake news. Reminds me of an old auntie who was brought over by her son from some far flung pind in Punjab and when she was watching her first ever Indian movie and the main actor got shot dead, she was in tears saying now that he was gone, how was he going to come back and make another movie?!
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
Indians are still learning how to digest social media, third world populations don't always have the capacity to understand the concept of fake news. Reminds me of an old auntie who was brought over by her son from some far flung pind in Punjab and when she was watching her first ever Indian movie and the main actor got shot dead, she was in tears saying now that he was gone, how was he going to come back and make another movie?!
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She must have been from the furthest, flungiest Pind ever. Or maybe she wasn't that bright to begin with, even kids can make that distinction.
 
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DeadBall said:
She must have been from the furthest, flungiest Pind ever. Or maybe she wasn't that bright to begin with, even kids can make that distinction.
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Have to agree,I have family in Indian Punjab pind and they are pretty savvy.
This is not about poor deluded ignorant villagers,this is about malicious,bigoted folks happily targeting innocent Muslims while the BJP govt fetes these murderers.
This is so that when the poor Muslims maybe finally retaliate , the BJP hindus can then say "see Hindu khatre main hai "and murder them in even larger numbers.
This is the vikas Modi was voted in for by the BJP hindus and watch him deliver on this in time for the 2019 elections.
 
So ,in the latest lynching in Rajasthan,the police stopped for a cup of tea,took care of the cow first before taking the injured man who then died to the hospital.

So this is the much vaunted Ramrajya that Modi has ushered in.
 
Dirq8uOX4AEHm_i.jpg
Waiting for the government to felicitate the murderers-the least that can be done in Ramrajya.
 
India has more fake news than anywhere else in the world, report says

A survey has found India has more fake news and internet hoaxes than anywhere else in the world.

The report, by Microsoft, found 64 per cent of Indians had encountered fake news, compared to the global average of 57 per cent.

Meanwhile, 54 per cent had come across internet hoaxes, in comparison to 50 per cent worldwide.

Internet hoaxes in particular have had murderous consequences in India. The Standard reported how more than 40 people were killed in the country last year amid a plague of smartphone-fuelled mob murders by ordinary citizens.

Experts said fake WhatsApp warnings about child abductors would whip up fear in communities, leading to brutal lynchings.

It led to WhatsApp enforcing new rules which limited the number of times messages could be forwarded to new people.

The platform is also gearing up for this year’s national elections, the biggest in the world with 800 million eligible to vote. CNN reported how the app is using artificial intelligence to detect accounts which spread “problematic content”.

Meanwhile, the Microsoft report about online interactions in India also found 29 per cent of people face “risks” from friends and family, one per cent above the global average.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/wor...e-else-in-the-world-report-says-a4059876.html
 
I have elderly relatives in India who seem to take Whatsapp forwards and Facebook 'news' very seriously :(

There needs to be a clampdown on this, and an education process to inform people about these type of things.
 
Even Tigers aren’t safe......

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Adult tigress attacked and killed by villagers in UP village<a href="https://t.co/wWKkBE3CWe">https://t.co/wWKkBE3CWe</a></p>— Hindustan Times (@HindustanTimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/HindustanTimes/status/1154464751038025729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
India's plan to try to mandate the monitoring, interception and tracing of messages on social media has alarmed users and privacy activists - as well as the companies running the platforms. Prasanto K Roy looks at the potential impact of such a move.

The country's information technology ministry will publish, by January 2020, a new set of rules for intermediaries: platforms that allow people to send, or share, messages. It is a sweeping term, which also includes e-commerce and many other types of apps and websites.

The move is in response to an explosion of fake news that has caused mob violence and has even led to death. Most frequent were rumours about child kidnappers, circulated on WhatsApp and other platforms. Those messages, with no basis in fact, caused mobs to lynch innocent passers-by.

Such "forwards" spread to tens of thousands of users in hours, and became nearly impossible to counter once they had spread.

In one example in 2018, the victim of mob violence was a man who had been employed by government officials to go around villages with a loudspeaker and tell locals not to believe rumours being spread on social media.

There are more than 50 documented cases of mob violence triggered by misinformation spread over social media in India in the last two years. Many platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, or Sharechat, a vernacular language social media start-up and app, play a role.

But the Facebook-owned WhatsApp is by far the most popular of the platforms. With India accounting for 400 million of its global base of 1.5 billion users, it ends up being the focus of discussions on the spread of misinformation.

After a spate of rumour-driven mob violence in 2018, the government had asked WhatsApp to help halt the spread of "irresponsible and explosive messages" on its platform. The platform took several steps, including limiting the number of forwards allowed to five at a time, and putting a forwarded tag on those messages.

Not enough, said the government, which now wants WhatsApp to use automated tools to monitor messages, as China does, to take down specific messages. It also wants the company to trace and report the original sender of a message or video.

India's attorney general has told the Supreme Court in a related case that social media companies had "no business to enter the country and carry on if they can't decrypt information for investigative agencies, in cases of sedition and pornography, among other crimes".

"See, they've [social media companies] even gone to court to stop us," a government official told me off the record.

He added that online surveillance in China is far deeper and more sweeping. He is right about that: on its popular WeChat platform, messages famously disappear if they contain banned words.

WhatsApp says the steps it has taken are working.

The labels and limits have reduced the number of forwarded messages on the platform by 25%, a spokesperson said. She added that the company actively bans two million accounts a month for "engaging in bulk or automated messaging", and runs a big public education campaign that has reached hundreds of millions of Indians.

Meanwhile, privacy activists are most worried about the demands to "trace" the original sender of a message.

The government says it wants to trace messages that cause violence and deaths, but activists fear it will then track down critics, with a chilling effect on free speech.

This is no unfounded worry, given the spate of cases where those criticising government actions, such as its crackdown in Kashmir last August, or those writing a letter of protest to the prime minister, end up facing a sedition charge.

"What [they want] is not possible today, given the end-to-end encryption we use," says Carl Woog, WhatsApp's global head of communications.

"It would require us to re-architect WhatsApp, leading us to a different product, one that would not be fundamentally private. Imagine if every message you sent was kept with a record of your phone number. That would not be a place for private communications."

Since 2011, India's laws have allowed platforms some safe harbour. A phone company cannot be held responsible for what its customers discuss over its phone lines; nor an email provider for the content of emails a person sends to another.

As long as the company complies with laws, such as sharing phone records on demand with the authorities, it is safe from legal action. The new proposed rules will make conditions for such safe harbour tougher.

Complying with the proposed rules would weaken the apps or platforms globally, given the difficulties of maintaining different apps for different countries.

And that's not the only problem. The draft rules demand a local India office for any platform which has more than five million users in India. This is ostensibly to find someone to hold accountable when there's a problem.

But India's technology laws define intermediary in a sweeping manner, spanning any platform used to share information.

So all of this would end up affecting others too: Wikipedia being an example of a platform that might have to shut down access to Indians, if such a law is enforced. It's also not clear what would be done if a messaging platform, such as the increasingly popular Signal or Telegram, did not comply with this rule.

It's likely that internet service providers would then be directed to shut down access to them.

While privacy activists have taken a hard stance against the contentious provisions - monitoring and traceability - public policy professionals say the government is keener to find a solution than to shut down or seriously disrupt platforms.

"They all use WhatsApp: bureaucrats, politicians, cops," the India policy head of a global tech company told me. "No one wants to shut it down. They just need to see WhatsApp taking more serious steps to tackle a real, serious problem."

Like many others, though, he wasn't able to spell out what those steps should be.
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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50167569.
 
New Delhi: WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against the government's new digital rules that take effect today, saying these would compel it to break privacy protections to users.

The Facebook-owned messaging service filed its petition on Tuesday against the rules that will require it to "trace" the origin of messages sent on the service.

"Requiring messaging apps to 'trace' chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people's right to privacy," WhatsApp, which has nearly 400 million users in India, said in a statement today.

"We have consistently joined civil society and experts around the world in opposing requirements that would violate the privacy of our users. In the meantime, we will also continue to engage with the government of India on practical solutions aimed at keeping people safe, including responding to valid legal requests for the information available to us," said a spokesperson of the California-based Facebook unit.

The petition asks the Delhi High Court to declare that one of the new rules is a violation of privacy rights under the constitution of India since it requires social media companies to identify the "first originator of information" when authorities want it.

WhatsApp says messages on its platform are end-to-end encrypted, so to comply with the law it would have break encryption for those who send and receive messages.

According to Reuters, WhatsApp's petition refers to a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that said privacy must be preserved except in cases where legality, necessity and proportionality all weighed against it.

Platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter were given three months to comply with the new digital rules that require them to appoint a compliance officer in India, set up a grievance response mechanism and take down content within 36 hours of a legal order.

The Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code says "significant social media intermediaries" - sites that host third party information, messages and posts -- stand to lose protection from lawsuits and prosecution if they fail to comply. This means they can no longer claim legal immunity from what is posted on their site.

Google on Tuesday cited its "long history" of managing content according to local laws to assure the Indian government of its continuing efforts to ensure legal compliance.

Facebook said it "aims to comply" with the new rules but added that it wants to discuss some "issues which need more engagement".

Twitter is yet to comment; it is caught in the "Congress *******" tweet controversy and finds itself on the radar of the government and Delhi Police for marking a BJP leader's post as "manipulated media".

Comments
(With inputs from Reuters)
 

WhatsApp Bans over 2 Cr Accounts in India from January to March, Monthly Reports Reveal Alarming Trend​


WhatsApp’s India monthly reports on the first three months of 2023 and 2024 revealed that the number of banned accounts on the messaging platform has nearly doubled this year compared to the same period last year.

The reports, mandated under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provide insights into the platform’s efforts to maintain its community standards and user safety.

According to the data between January 1 and January 31, 2024, a staggering 6,728,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. The figures surged in February, with 7,628,000 accounts banned between February 1 and February 29, 2024. March saw a further increase, with 7,954,000 accounts banned between March 1 and March 31, 2024. This brings the total number of banned accounts in the first three months of 2024 to a striking 22,310,000.

Comparatively, between January 1 and January 31, 2023, a total of 2,918,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned. In February, 4,597,400 accounts faced bans. Lastly, March witnessed 4,715,906 accounts being banned. This accumulated to a total of 12,231,306 banned accounts.

WhatsApp, on its webpage, states: “If your account is banned, you’ll see the following message when you open WhatsApp – ‘This account is not allowed to use WhatsApp’. We ban accounts if we believe the account activity violates our Terms of Service, for example, if it involves spam, scams or if it puts WhatsApp users’ safety at risk.”

The messaging platform has encouraged users to review its “Acceptable Use of Our Services” section within the Terms of Service to better understand the guidelines and ensure compliance. WhatsApp also highlighted its focus on security, urging users to keep their accounts secure and report any unauthorised use promptly.

However, the increase in banned accounts underscores the growing challenge platforms face in maintaining user safety and combating misuse, particularly in regions with large user bases like India. As of March 2024, India leads globally in WhatsApp usage, boasting over 530 million monthly active users, making it the country with the highest number of users on the platform.

www.news18.com

WhatsApp Bans over 2 Cr Accounts in India from January to March, Monthly Reports Reveal Alarming Trend - News18

The increase in banned accounts underscores the growing challenge platforms face in maintaining user safety and combating misuse, particularly in regions with large user bases like India
www.news18.com www.news18.com
 
IndoorCricket said:
Exposes their crab mentality to be honest.
Click to expand...
Imagine a Pakistani having the audacity to call India an extremist country? A country where Bin Laden was enjoying the time of his life, a country where UN designated terrorists roam openly, a country where suicide bombing doesn't even surprises anyone anymore.
 
Hitman said:
Imagine a Pakistani having the audacity to call India an extremist country? A country where Bin Laden was enjoying the time of his life, a country where UN designated terrorists roam openly, a country where suicide bombing doesn't even surprises anyone anymore.
Click to expand...
do you have solid evidence to prove that he was in Pakistan? have you seen him alive in Pakistan? have you seen his dead body in Pakistan? have you even seen his dead body?
 
FearlessRoar said:
do you have solid evidence to prove that he was in Pakistan? have you seen him alive in Pakistan? have you seen his dead body in Pakistan? have you even seen his dead body?
Click to expand...
:ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: But you and other Pakistanis are sure of Modi's role in Gujarat riots, right?
 
Hitman said:
Imagine a Pakistani having the audacity to call India an extremist country? A country where Bin Laden was enjoying the time of his life, a country where UN designated terrorists roam openly, a country where suicide bombing doesn't even surprises anyone anymore.
Click to expand...
Ok sir we have no right to say anything.

You however are a noble person with a right to criticise whatever you like.

Please sir if Ayatollah Khomeini is an evil person for passing a death sentence on Rushdie who lived on unscathed can you explain if Hindu cow lynchers are evil or extreme to us mere mortals who are not allowed to comment on Indian affairs.

Thank you.
 
@Hitman we are waiting for your saintly stamp regarding whether cow lynchers are evil extremists. Please also confirm where they sit relative to Ayatollah Khomeini.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
@Hitman we are waiting for your saintly stamp regarding whether cow lynchers are evil extremists. Please also confirm where they sit relative to Ayatollah Khomeini.
Click to expand...
The difference is you won't ever find me defending such criminals. I believe they deserve the strictest punishment under law. They don't deserve to live in the civilised society. And therein lies the difference.
 
Hitman said:
The difference is you won't ever find me defending such criminals. I believe they deserve the strictest punishment under law. They don't deserve to live in the civilised society. And therein lies the difference.
Click to expand...
You still really haven't answered the question beyond some pithy words. Are they evil extremists?

Are they more or less evil than Khomeini in your eyes?
 
DeadlyVenom said:
You still really haven't answered the question beyond some pithy words. Are they evil extremists?

Are they more or less evil than Khomeini in your eyes?
Click to expand...
They are evil criminals. Yes, they are outright evil and subhuman.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Please follow the advise you gave to @Firebat when such evil and subhumans creatures roam in your country then don't have the audacity to criticize others.
Click to expand...
Looks like you don't have an idea between petty criminals and UN sanctioned terrorists. Criminals exist in every society, not UN sanctioned terrorists. And such lynchings happened years ago, that too very few. They stopped a long time ago. And those involved were punished under law.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hitman said:
Looks like you don't have an idea between petty criminals and UN sanctioned terrorists. Criminals exist in every society, not UN sanctioned terrorists. And such lynchings happened years ago, that too very few. They stopped a long time ago. And those involved were punished under law.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it gives great comfort to the poor victims of cow lynching were victims of petty criminals.

International designations can change.

Modi was refused entry to the US because of his past before he came to power.

Yet you guys voted for him despite this designation.

The Indian government itself lists numerous terrorist groups wandering freely in India....but I guess these aren't terrorists in your eyes until the UN mentions it.

Anyway India is higher in the global terrorism index than Iran and Palestine yet I've seen you make remarks about them numerous times. You shouldn't show such audacity.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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