New Delhi: A message is going viral on social media claiming that as per updated feature of WhatsApp, the government can now monitor the messages being exchanged on the app and can arrest the user if a red-tick appears at the end of the message. It claims that the new features include three ticks which can tell whether the government has read the message or not and whether the message has anything objectionable or not. People are largely aware of the two blue ticks which tell them that the message has been read by the recipient. However, as per the claims of the viral message, the updated version will now have three ticks.
  • Two blue ticks with one single tick mean that your recipient has read the message but the government has not
  • Three blue ticks at the end mean that your recipient and government both have read the message and it does not have anything offensive
  • Two blue ticks and one red tick means that both recipient and government have read the message but the message is objectionable and it can lead to the sender’s arrest
  As per the claim every message is being monitored by government and people can be arrested if they get a red tick in their chat window. Another similar message that is being shared widely claims that government bodies are monitoring all the messages. It is followed by an appeal not to forward messages or images about the present government or the Prime Minister. Viral Sach team checked the matter with Whatsapp management. In response, we were told that WhatsApp works on end to end encryption of messages, which means only the two sending and receiving parties can read the message and no other third party is able to read it. We were also informed that WhatsApp does not store the messages on its server. In case a message is not delivered instantly, WhatsApp stores it for 30 days and tries sending it within that time-frame. If sending is failed, Whatsapp deletes the message. We also spoke with cyber expert Anuj Agrawal who said: I believe this message is a hoax and we do not have such censorship in our country because it would be against the basic rights. Such a thing is not possible to happen in future as well. Social media is being misused to spread rumours. The viral claims of government monitoring WhatsApp messages has been proved false in our investigation. Watch Viral Sach: