Why are the Indian authorities not acting against this loophole that allows instigators and abettors of crimes to go scot free?
A security hole in Whatsapp allows anyone to go anynomous on Whatsapp in India. Whatsapp has two ways of verifying identity — either via an SMS or via a voice call, what is called the call me option.
By using the ubiquitous public pay phone which has no ownership associated with it, one can receive the OTP in voice on the phone and use it to verify one's identity. This associates the Whatsapp with the Public Pay Phone number which cannot be attributed to a particular owner and thus one can hide oneself.
Given the huge use of Whatsapp — Whatsapp is increasingly becoming the medium of communication and the assumption is that given that Whatsapp users usually are tied to a mobile number, their identity can be found.
Just as an example, radio stations receive messages from listeners on Whatsapp. The Bangalore airport authorities receive feedback or complaints on Whatsapp.
Imagine the potential of misuse when whatsapp can be used anonymously. Whatsapp has been informed of this security hole. They have refused to fix it. It is high time Indian law enforcements take action before this hole is misused.
The following youtube video illustrates the security hole.
What False and Vicious Whatsapps Can Do, Have Done: Take Lives
Social Disharmony Through Whatapp
Jharkand
Recently, in Jharkand, seven persons were lynched to death after scurrilous rumopurs of child kidnappings were spread on Whatapp. Too late,the local police sought to act on rumours that were being spread on What's App for over a month on alleged 'child kidnappers' on the prowl. Read more about this here
In October 2016, 22- year old Minhah Ansari was flogged to death in Jharkand after a false Whatsapp image of him behading a calf was circulated. Unbeknownst to the young men, Sonu Singh, the district head of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Jamtara unit, had complained to the police that Ansari had posted a photograph of himself with a calf on a WhatsApp group on October 2, followed by another of him posing with beef.
Read more about this here
Maharashtra
Barely a few months ago, a professor was beaten up, arrested, and suspended in the climax of a grand, long war waged against him.“I had never imagined that a WhatsApp forward would cost me my job, my dignity, and everything that I have loved”, said Professor Sunil Waghmare, worriedly. “I want my life back. I have had no experience of fighting injustice of this scale before” he says, referring to the mob that humiliated and slapped him within the campus premises, in public view. He was forced to leave his small room in Khopoli after the incident, and left for his village along with his family.
Read more about this here
Haryana
And in Mewat, a doctored video on Whatsapp School attendance in this Haryana district fell to as low as 5% after a doctored video began to do the rounds on social media. Mewat fathers are standing guard outside schools after rumours about injections causing sterility
In February, the Union health ministry had launched a campaign to administer the measles-rubella vaccine to children between the ages of nine months and 15 years. The campaign started with the states of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Goa, and Lakshadweep. The campaign was yet to reach Haryana.
The first half of the ABP News programme summarised the rumours that had spread in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, while the second half featured experts, including doctors, debunking them. Only the first half of the programme circulated on WhatsApp in Mewat.
Read more about this here
And the story begins with the Muzaffarnagar violence opf September 2013 when vicious Whatsapp messages were used to spread hatred and vitriol against Muslims living in four districts of western UP.
Why are the Indian authorities not acting against this loophole that allows instigators and abettors of crimes to go scot free?