International spam calls on WhatsApp: IT ministry to send notice to the company – Times of India

The IT ministry will send a notice to WhatsApp on the issue of spam calls from unknown international numbers. The minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told the same to media on the sidelines of an event asserting that the onus of ensuring user safety lies with the digital platforms. “The ministry is taking note of it, they will send them a notice,” he told reporters.
He said that the digital platforms are responsible and accountable for ensuring the safety of ‘digital nagriks’. The minister further added that the government will respond to every instance of alleged misuse or alleged breach of users’ privacy.
The minister’s comments assume significance as WhatsApp users in India have reported a massive surge in incoming international spam calls over the past few days. Several users have complained on social media platforms of getting spam calls with country codes belonging to Indonesia (+62), Vietnam (+84), Malaysia (+60), Kenya (+254) and Ethiopia (+251).
Government planning guidelines for preloaded apps
He also said that the government is planning to come with guidelines on what should be permissions for preloaded apps. The minister also made it clear that the platforms are responsible for ensuring the safety and trust of users. “I have said repeatedly that openness trust, safety and accountability are the responsibility of platforms who deliver to digital nagriks,” the minister noted. If there is an issue of spam, it is certainly an issue WhatsApp should look at or any messenger platform should look at, he added.
“Government will respond to every alleged misuse or alleged breach of privacy,” he said. One of the problems being examined at this point is also how these numbers are accessed by scammers.
“How are they able to identify which numbers are on WhatsApp…are they doing it blindly…is it some database they have got? If there is a database it is a violation of privacy, or if not are they doing it through a bot… sending messages to random numbers… But that is certainly something platforms will be asked to look at,” he said.
WhatsApp response to Indian government’s call to send notice
“Protecting the privacy and security of users is fundamental to Meta and to WhatsApp. Our users are at the heart of everything we do and we are fully aligned with the Government’s goal of keeping users safe. WhatsApp is a leader among end-to-end encrypted services in protecting user safety. We continue to provide several safety tools within WhatsApp like Block & Report, consistently build user safety education and awareness, as well as, proactively weed out bad-actors from our platform. However, bad actors find different ways to scam users. International scam calls is a new way that bad actors have recently adopted. By giving a missed call, they lead curious users to call or message back only to get scammed. Therefore, we have quickly ramped up our AI & ML systems to bring down such incidents significantly. Our new enforcement will reduce the current calling rate by at least 50% and we expect to be able to control the current incidence effectively. We will continue to work relentlessly towards ensuring a safe experience for our users,” said WhatsApp spokesperson in a statement.