Govt Orders Mobile Networks to Act Against Journo Abusers

The abuse on WhatsApp has come in the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack.

Senior journalists have complained of threats and abuse on WhatsApp

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/ The Quint)

The government, on Tuesday, 19 February, took cognisance of the threats and abuse that several senior journalists have had to endure on WhatsApp since Sunday.

The Ministry of Communications & IT has issued a letter with the subject ‘Misuse of Telecom Network for sending obscene & vulgar messages’ to all the major mobile operators with orders to “take immediate action against customers/subscribers” of their respective networks who have sent lewd messages.

In doing so, the letter has also mentioned 19 mobile numbers, 16 of which pertain to those who have allegedly texted Ravish Kumar and three of those who have sent messages to Abhisar Sharma.

“As per the Licence Agreement, the onus is also on the telecom operators to ensure that their networks are not used for obscene, malicious and objectionable transmission. lt is suggested that the telecom operators/licensees may open  dedicated call centre/helpline for receiving such complaints.”

Ministry of Communications, Department of Telecommunication to mobile operators

Following the deluge of threats and abuse that several senior journalists have received on WhatsApp since Sunday, 17 February, fellow journalists as well as international advocacy group Reporters Without Borders have extended their support and called for prompt government action.

Stating that the organisation was “horrified” by the threats against journalists, “especially women,” the international non-profit that works for the rights of journalists and media freedom across the globe, has tweeted appealing to Home Minister Rajnath Singh to “take action now.”

A number of senior journalists, including Ravish Kumar, Abhisar Sharma and Swati Chaturvedi, have complained of threats and abuse on WhatsApp over the weekend. Chaturvedi, in a tweet, claimed that a “hate list” with phone numbers of journalists has been circulated with the intention of targeted abuse.

However, while a senior WhatsApp official has reached out to Barkha Dutt offering to help after she brought up the issue of an “organised hate campaign” she has alleged that Twitter wants to “punish” her. The Quint has reached out to Dutt and Twitter and is awaiting response.

Carl Woog, WhatsApp’s head of communications, in a prompt reply to her tweet on Monday morning said “Hi there – sorry to hear this. Could you follow me back? Would like to chat & help.”

On Sunday, many, including Dutt, took to Twitter to offer shelter to Kashmiris facing harassment following the death of 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwama on 14 February. She had mentioned that her number was available online.

On Monday, after her complaint tagging Delhi Police including Madhur Verma, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, he responded saying that police is investigating the matter.

Dutt has also shared screenshots of unsolicited images of genitalia that were sent to her on WhatsApp.

Twitter Warns Dutt

In a new development on Monday evening, senior journalist Barkha Dutt had claimed that she has been warned by Twitter for ‘violating’ its rules by publishing the numbers of those that have sent her death threats.

Dutt has also shared a screenshot of an e-mail she had sent to Twitter India officials after claiming that she was asked by the platform to take down her tweets in which she had published the numbers of her callers.

Journalist Files Police Complaint

Abhisar Sharma, former ABP News journalist, currently with NewsClick.in, in a series of tweets had claimed to have received abusive messages on WhatsApp, including rape threats to his family members, and has appealed to Delhi Police for action.

He tweeted on Monday evening confirming that he had officially registered a police complaint against the numbers that had sent him threats.

Journalist Abhisar Sharma shared screenshots of abusive WhatsApp texts sent to him after his number was allegedly circulated among groups on the messaging app. (Photo courtesy: Abhisar Sharma)

WhatsApp Assures Action Against Abuse

While it is not yet clear in what capacity and manner WhatsApp will be extending help to journalists, Woog, who was in India on 7 February, has made clear that the messaging app has come up with a number of tools to fight abuse and will ban accounts it finds to be engaging in it.

Among the significant product changes that WhatsApp has rolled out is the updated “report” option. Previously, WhatsApp provided a function to “Report Spam” which has now been tweaked to “Report” in order “to encourage users to inform us about a range of potential issues they encounter on WhatApp,” according to a white paper it released last week.

“We ban two million accounts a month globally,” Matt Jones, lead software engineer on WhatsApp’s integrity team had said during his visit to India along with Woog. He did not, however, specify how many of those accounts, on average, are from India – the largest market for the app which currently has 1.5 billion active users globally.