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Facebook, for instance, is part of a joint forum created with other tech giants such as Google's YouTube and Twitter to combat extremism.ĭespite what the minister said, India isn't entirely helpless in its move to rid undesirable content from WhatsApp. While no backdoors to encrypted content have been created, companies are responsive to governments' repeated calls for action to fight terrorism. Messaging app Telegram has been admonished for creating a safe haven for terrorists to plot attacks in countries such as Indonesia and Russia. Countries such as Australia and the UK have cited security concerns when calling for tech companies, especially Facebook's WhatsApp, to give authorities access to content when required. India is not the only country expressing frustration with encryption.
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"Instances of objectionable videos being uploaded through mobile phones and shared through WhatsApp have been noticed," he said.
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The government would otherwise be able to use laws that are already in place to punish people for spreading fake news. WhatsApp's encryption is the only obstruction to the government's ability to act on reported content, added the minister. The Indian Minister for Electronics and Information Technology admitted that the country is "helpless." It's unable to access "objectionable" content because of encryption, according to The Economic Times. When India threatened to put people responsible for fake news behind bars, it didn't exactly know how it'd do that.
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