In a gesture of social responsibility, Facebook owned WhatsApp released a statement saying, child pornography has absolutely no place on the messaging platform and the firm will take the strictest action against the dissemination of such content, including banning of accounts, based on user reports. Terming child pornography as “vile”, WhatsApp said it also responds to valid legal requests from law enforcement to investigate these types of crimes.
“While we cannot see the messages that people share with one another, we can and do take action based on user reports including banning accounts,” WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement. The comments comes at a time when the Supreme Court has said that the Centre has signed an agreement with internet giants like Google, Microsoft and Facebook wherein videos of rape, child pornography and objectionable material will be “stamped out”.
“Everybody has agreed that child pornography, rape, gang rape videos and objectionable material need to be stamped out. The proposed SoPs will be drafted on this premise,” the bench said.
The Centre last month suggested to the court that the intermediaries should deploy trusted flaggers for identifying and deletion of unlawful content while suggesting that there should be prompt disposal of requisitions of law enforcement agencies to remove unlawful contents. A 24X7 mechanism for dealing with requisitions of law enforcement agencies also needs to be set up to curb such activities.