Some of the top officials of WhatsApp, on the 6th of February, issued a final warning to Indian political parties, which are abusing the social media platform to campaign for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
WhatsApp recorded multiple fake message broadcasts, fake news and inappropriate usage by the political parties.
Carl Woog, the Head of Communications at WhatsApp, said, “We have seen a number of parties attempt to use WhatsApp in ways that it was not intended, and our firm message to them is that using it in that way will result in bans of our service.”
However, the WhatsApp officials denied to reveal the names of the parties indulging in this practice.
Mr. Woog said, “We are trying to be very clear going into the election that there is abuse on WhatsApp. We are working very hard to identify it and prevent it as soon as possible.”
Explaining about the intended purpose of WhatsApp to the political parties, Mr. Woog said, “We have had effort for the last several months where we have engaged with political parties to explain our firm view that WhatsApp is not a broadcast platform and is not a place to send messages at scale. And to explain to them that we will be banning accounts that engage in automated robotic behaviour and we do this regardless of the purpose of your account (sic.)”
Divya Spandana, the Social Media Head of the Indian National Congress (INC,) denied any such allegations and said, the Party does not abuse the platform.
Amit Malviya, the Head of Information Technology of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,) also said, he did not meet with any of the WhatsApp officials.
WhatsApp is said to be one of the major tools for campaign strategy, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. All the political parties are active on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to interact with the public and maintain public relations.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled between April and May 2019 and the major parties contesting are the INC and the BJP.
Stay tuned for further updates about Lok Sabha elections, 2019.
