The recent visit of Chris Daniels, CEO - WhatsApp to India happens to be theĀ first ever visit by any WhatsApp chief executive to the country. HeĀ chose himself to visit the country on a five-day tour that has a huge pull of subscribers with over 250 million monthly active users.
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Ever since WhatsApp payments started to pilot in India, the instant messenger has been facing a tough time in the country. Right from the issues of fake news to lynching and setting up local operations for its UPI-based payments, the company has left no stone unturned to settle the issues with the Indian government.
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Daniel, who recently met Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is now looking to set up a local office in the IT city of Hyderabad by meeting Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao to discuss all the possible aspects in this regard. Its parent company Facebook which also has a large presence in the country has its India office in Hyderabad since 2010.
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Following the governmentās direction, WhatsApp had agreed to meet all the norms except the message traceability. According to the company, building traceability would undermine end-to-end encryption and the private nature of WhatsApp, creating the potential for serious misuse.
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In the LinkedinĀ page of Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister has confirmed that the CEO of Whatsapp Chris Daniels had met him. "I requested him to appoint a grievance officer in India, set up a corporate entity of Whatsapp in India to ensure compliance with Indian laws, work with Indian law enforcement agencies and undertake public awareness campaigns to prevent misuse of #Whatsapp. He assured me to comply with all these requests," the Minister tweeted.
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WhatsApp had said that it is headhunting for two leadership positions, India Head and Head of Policy.
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The WhatsApp management in India also needs to have a corporate social responsibility to ensure monitoring and control of unethical spreading of unwanted, anti-social and hateful messages through it.
