After taking various steps to curb fake messages, WhatsApp Chief Executive Officer Chris Daniels has sought a meeting with Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad this week.

Ministry sources told BusinessLine that Daniels will be in India this week, and has expressed his desire to meet top policy makers in the country, including the Minister.

“Chris Daniels, CEO of WhatsApp Inc, has requested a meeting with the Minister sometime this week,” a senior official at MeitY said.

However, the Minister has not accepted the request or given a time slot yet, said another official on condition of anonymity.

This is the second time in the recent past that senior officials of the Facebook-owned company have sought meetings with top government officials.

With the Data Protection Bill in the final stages, it will be important for the company to understand the country’s sentiments, the official said.

Recently, WhatsAPP Chief Operating Officer Matthew Idema was here to meet MeitY Secretary Ajay Sawhney and senior officials.

At these meetings, they discussed various issues, including how to curb the spread of fake messages on the instant messaging app.

Fuelled by rumours and fake messages on WhatsApp, more than a dozen people have been lynched across the country this year.

To curb such incidents, the government had sent two notices to the company to find solutions.

WhatsApp has about 200 million users in India, which is one of its largest markets. Globally, it has around 1.5 billion users.

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