New Delhi (Sputnik): The Supreme Court of India on Monday issued a notice to social media giant WhatsApp and the Ministry of Information Technology (IT) and Finance for failing to comply with government requests for a grievance officer to be appointed by the company in India.
READ MORE: India Instructs WhatsApp to Set Up Local Data Storage Unit
The apex court seeks a detailed reply as to why a grievance officer in India has not been appointed yet by WhatsApp despite being told to do so.
Supreme Court today issued a notice to #WhatsApp, IT and Finance ministry and sought a detailed reply from them within four weeks as to why a grievance officer in India has not been appointed yet by Whatsapp pic.twitter.com/iqxaiIi5AP
— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2018
WhatsApp has also taken up several measures, including awareness campaigns through newspapers in India, to sensitize users against fake news and to curb its spread.
WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels met IT and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last week. Prasad told the media after the meeting that he had asked the company to immediately appoint a grievance officer in India to address concerns involving the circulation of fake messages.
READ MORE: WhatsApp India Rolls Out Changes to Limit Spread of Rumors
Prasad said that he had also asked the messaging platform to comply with regulators and find a technical solution to tracing the origin of sinister messages.
In response, WhatsApp agreed to establish up a local office but refused to add a feature that would enable messages to be traced. News reports quoted WhatsApp as clarifying that the company had no access to their users' data.
