Arafat Hasan: India’s top court has asked WhatsApp, already facing pressure in India over fake news, to respond to a petition which alleges that it breaches certain Indian regulations.
According to a Reuters report published yesterday, India’s Supreme Court asked the messaging service to respond to the petition, filed by a Delhi-based think-tank called the Centre For Accountability And Systemic Change (CASC), within four weeks.
In its petition, CASC has alleged that WhatsApp does not comply with the Information Technology Act, 2000, which mandates “the appointment of Grievance Officer by all intermediaries.”
“It is also required to have a Grievance Officer for users in India. Yet, it is being allowed to continue with its Payments and other services, without any checks,” the petition added.
The Indian IT Act mandates intermediaries or carriers of content like WhatsApp, to appoint a Grievance Officer, to handle any queries, concerns or issues that users of the platform may have that do not come under the purview of other authorities.
WhatsApp declined to make a comment about the litigation or their response to the petition, but a spokesman said it has both an Indian corporate entity and a grievance officer for Indian users.
However, the grievance officer that the spokesman referred to is based in California.
Following talks with the Indian technology ministry, WhatsApp is now working on having a grievance officer based in India, the spokesman said.
India’s technology, home, law and finance ministries as well as its telecoms regulator are also among the respondents named in the public interest litigation and will have to respond to the court notice in four weeks.
-Source: Reuters