NEW DELHI: Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad held a meeting with WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels for discussions on tackling of the spread of fake news on the platform. To news agency ANI, Ravi Shankar Prasad said “I had a very productive meeting. I complimented him for extraordinary technological awakening that WhatsApp has led in the country, for education, healthcare, relief in Kerala. These are positive developments.” He further added that there are also very sinister developments, that provoke crime like mob lynching, revenge porn, & you must find solutions to these challenges which are a downright criminal violation of Indian laws. Union IT Minister also gave three suggestions to the Whatsapp CEO which were –
  1. WhatsApp must have a grievance officer in India: RS Prasad
  2. WhatsApp must have a proper compliance with Indian laws. It was said that the govt. won't appreciate a scenario where any problem will have to be answered in America.
  3. WhatsApp has become an important component of India's digital storage & must have a proper corporate entity located in India.
According to reports, WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels will be in India for 4-5 days. Over the past few months, fake messages circulating on WhatsApp have incited incidents of mob lynching across parts of India. The government has sent out notices to the Facebook-owned company directing it to take urgent measures to curb false information in India. To tackle the spread of false information, the Facebook-owned platform has limited forward messaging to five chats for over 200 million users in India.