No Roadmap to Check Objectionable Content on WhatsApp, Admits Government Indo-Asian News Service, 28 July 2017

No Roadmap to Check Objectionable Content on WhatsApp, Admits Government

 
Indo-Asian News Service, 28 July 2017

No Roadmap to Check Objectionable Content on WhatsApp, Admits Government

HIGHLIGHTS

The government on Friday virtually expressed its helplessness about checking objectionable content uploaded on online messaging site WhatsApp as they are encrypted end-to-end and no third party can access them.
The government can take action once the content is reported as it has laws in place, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Congress member Raj Babbar in the Rajya Sabha in reply to a question.
The member had asked whether the government has any plan to stop sharing of objectionable videos through mobiles and WhatsApp.
In the answer, Prasad cited laws that deal with offences of publishing or transmitting objectionable contents. He admitted that instances of objectionable videos being uploaded through mobile phones and shared through WhatsApp have been noticed but added that messages are end-to-end encryptedand cannot be seen by a third party.
"Instances of objectionable videos being uploaded through mobile phones and shared through WhatsApp have been noticed. According to WhatsApp, the messages are end-to-end encrypted and they and any third party cannot read them. In other words, the messages are only seen by the sender and the receiver," he said in the reply.
"WhatsApp provides a feature to report any objectionable content. However, they also admit that since they do not have the contents of the messages available with them, it limits their ability to take action. A user can take screenshot of the content and share it with appropriate law enforcement authorities," he added.
The Minister further said that the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, as amended in 2008, provides for punishment for publishing or transmitting objectionable contents including sexually explicit and obscene material.
"Concerned law enforcement agencies take necessary action for violation noticed or reported as per the law," he said.
There have been instances of anti-social elements using WhatsApp to fan communal passions in the recent past.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

50 Smartphone Blogs to Watch

Image
50 Smartphone Blogs to Watch There's quite a collection of good and colorful blogs that track iPhones, Android devices, BlackBerries and other  smartphones  and no shortage of overlapping coverage among them (How many different "scoops" on the  Android-powered Motorola Devour phone did I come across today?). Some are written by professional reporters, others by unapologetic geeks and others by thinly-veiled marketers. Here's a spin through 50 of these  mobile phone  blogs, excluding more general gadget sites and including a few from my employer, IDG General Smartphones BGR (Boy Genius Report) : The mysterious Boy Genius and friends blog about mobile gadgets from Apple, RIM and others, and more often than not, are the first ones out with the information. Blog posts cover everything from the latest device rumors to straight financial news. One sign that this is a go-to site: The hundreds of comments posted by readers on the site's blog entries. C...
Read more

Where to Move if You Want a Tech Job

Image
Where to Move if You Want a Tech Job The San Francisco Bay Area is one of eight major metros accounting for a significant share of America's tech openings, according to new data.  (GETTY IMAGES) Through the first half of 2017, more than a quarter of America's job openings in tech were located in just eight major metropolitan areas, according to new research that also suggests the bulk of the industry's highest-paying jobs are consolidating around just a handful of cities across the country. Jed Kolko, chief economist at employment hub Indeed, on Tuesday unveiled new research digging into tech employment in America. It showed just eight metro areas – those centered around San Jose, California; the District of Columbia; Baltimore; Seattle; Raleigh, North Carolina; San Francisco; Austin, Texas; and Boston – accounted for 27 percent of all tech job postings during the first half of the year. Comparatively, that same group accounted for just 13 percent of al...
Read more

Facebook’s rumored smart speaker would be DOA

Image
Facebook’s rumored smart speaker would be DOA If Facebook is planning to make a smart speaker, it should really reconsider. A report in  Digitimes  today  says that  Facebook’s Building 8 research group  is developing a smart speaker with a 15-inch touch panel. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical of this:  Digitimes  has a mixed track record on tech rumors; supply chain sources can misidentify projects or describe early tests that don’t make it to market; Facebook doesn’t have a voice assistant yet; and a 15-inch screen on a speaker seems kind of ridiculous. Asked for comment, a Facebook representative said, “We don’t have anything to share at this time.” All that being said, it still seems entirely possible that Facebook would want to get in on the smart speaker game. Facebook doesn’t have a role in the smart home yet, despite having its tendrils in so many other facets of our lives. And even though Amazon has a strong early lead, th...
Read more