WhatsApp to cooperate in blocking sexually offensive videos in India

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WhatsApp has assured Supreme Court of India that it will be lending full support to find ways of blocking sexually offensive video on its messaging platform as well as social media sites and platforms.

The assurances comes after WhatsApp was made a party in the matter by the Supreme Court. WhatsApp said that it will be meeting with the committee set up by the court within two weeks to explore a technical solution to block such videos. Further the messaging company also said that its engineer and experts of WhatsApp would demonstrate to the committee all the technical aspects, including the encryption technology.

The court’s order had come after advocate Aparna Bhat, who is representing the petitioner, had mentioned the matter before it seeking to make WhatsApp a party in the case. The court had on March 22 constituted the committee comprising representatives from the Centre and internet majors to explore a technical solution to block videos of sexual offences on social networking sites. It had given the nominees of Google India, Microsoft India, Yahoo India, Facebook and other internet intermediaries 15 days to meet and come up with a solution.

The Centre had earlier informed the apex court that it would set up a specialised agency to block and curb sharing of sexual offence videos on social networking platforms. The court was hearing a letter sent to then Chief Justice of India H L Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala along with two rape videos in a pen drive. It had taken cognisance of its own of the letter about posting of those videos and had asked the CBI to launch an investigation with immediate effect to apprehend the culprits.

The NGO’s letter had also mooted the idea of maintaining a national sex offenders’ register which should contain details of persons convicted for offences like eve-teasing, stalking, molestation and other sexual assaults. It had also suggested that the Ministry of Home Affairs should have a tie-up with YouTube and WhatsApp to ensure that such offensive videos are not uploaded and the culprits are punished.