After multiple incidents of violence recently, sparked by hoax messages spreading across WhatsApp, the government of India has asked the company to take action. For parent company Facebook, that may include public safety ads.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has warned WhatsApp it needs to ensure that false, misleading and explosive rumours are not spread over the app, thereby inciting violence.?
For its part, the company responded yesterday saying it doesn't want its services to be used for, ¡°spreading harmful misinformation and believe this is a challenge that companies and societies should address.¡± With over 20 crore active users in India, the company has said it intends to look into more ways it can alert users that a message might contain false news or a hoax.
In that letter, WhatsApp said one possible step it could take is running a public safety ad campaign across India. It¡¯s still just an idea though, if parent company Facebook intends to go through with it, it¡¯ll needs the support of the government. But we can likely assume such a campaign to focus on three possible mediums; television, Facebook ads, or popup notifications on WhatsApp itself.