WhatsApp senior executives from its US headquarters and India operations reportedly had met the Election Commission of India as a part of the upcoming Indian elections and the misuse possibilities on the platform. WhatsApp official told EC that it will look out for the options concerning the spam messaging techniques in the run-up to state polls scheduled for 2018-end.
This will become active from the time the model code of conduct kicks in, and especially 48 hours before polling. The company will also bring the fake news verification model it recently used in Mexican general elections to India. People familiar with the internal developments inside WhatsApp confirmed that these meetings have been held and that the team comprises researchers, and executives dealing with public policy, customer operations and business development.
Furthermore, EC officials said to have agreed to maintain secrecy through the period the model code of conduct is in force and will up its efforts 48 hours before polling begins. WhatsApp Indian team is also said to be planning to meet Indian banks which it needs to be in partnership for a peer-to-peer digital payments solution. The learning from monitoring the 2018-end elections will be used to frame a broader approach for general elections scheduled for 2019.
With over 200 million active users as of February 2018, WhatsApp counts India as its largest market. Basing on 2014 voting data roughly translates to 24.1% of the overall electorate, the proportion is expected to be considerably higher, experts say, as 2019 polls approach. WhatsApp is also said to be planning on bringing Verificado model to India, it is a collective fact-checking exercise deployed by WhatsApp during recent Mexican elections.
WhatsApp said that the company is now focusing on “upstream detection” with an aim to weed out ‘suspicious’ users at the registration stage. It will use Machine learning to detect sequential numbers used to create groups.
EC’s efforts to combat misuse of social media in election campaign started in January 2014 with a 14-member committee including members from key social media platforms.