India has told WhatsApp that the popular messaging service company should set up a local entity in the country, appoint a grievance officer, and come up with solutions to trace the origin of fake messages.

Briefing the media after meeting WhatsApp’s Chief Executive Chris Daniels, Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the company was also asked to find solutions to the challenge of messages that provoke crimes such as mob-lynching and revenge porn.

“I have suggested three points. [WhatsApp] must have a grievance officer in India; [the company] must be compliant with Indian laws; and thirdly, since WhatsApp [is] becoming an important role in India’s digital story, it must have a proper corporate entity located in India,” Prasad said.

He said the Indian government would not appreciate a scenario wherein any problem/ reason is “answerable to America only”. “I have been assured that that all these three things will be followed,” he said.

Prasad said the WhatsApp CEO had held out assurances about a grievance system for India, and had also promised to work on technology to trace the origin of fake messages.

Prasad said Daniels had also shared issues concerning payment services that Facebook-owned WhatsApp planned to launch. He said the IT Ministry had already flagged its concern — that of the location of financial data in India — to the RBI.

“The RBI is working on the guidelines and he (Daniels) has assured me (that) WhatsApp will comply with whatever guidelines RBI comes out with,” he said.

Daniels is likely to meet other government and business officials during his stay in the country.

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