Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law and Justice & Information Technology, Government of India, had asked the messaging company to set up a corporate office in India along with a compliance officer. The company has assured the government that “it is ready to work with regulators and law enforcement authorities to block sources that generate objectionable content.”
Earlier, the government told WhatsApp that it does not commit itself to the traceability of the messages. The government warned WhatsApp that the absence of adequate checks will leave the government no other options but to treat the application as ‘abettor’ of rumour propagation and it will take legal action against the company. WhatsApp has told the government that is currently building a local team as a part to check the circulation of fake news.
Whatsapp wants to make Hyderabad as their base for customer service operations in India. In this regard, the CEO of the company – Chris Daniels also talked with Telangana’s Information Technology Minister K. T. Rama Rao, when the former visited Hyderabad during their recent five-days’ visit in India.
Daniel, recently met Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is now looking to set up a local office in the IT city Hyderabad by meeting Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao to discuss all the possible aspects in this regard. Whereas, its parent company Facebook has the largest presence in the city as it’s India office since 2010.
Following the government’s direction, WhatsApp had agreed to meet all the norms except the message traceability. According to the company, building traceability would undermine end-to-end encryption and the private nature of WhatsApp, creating the potential for serious misuse.
WhatsApp, the IT Secretary said, has agreed to work with the Telangana government to find some practical solutions for the issue of fake news. It would also work with the Police Department, by holding a workshop for the personnel, on how WhatsApp can become an important tool in crime prevention.