Offensive WhatsApp messages: No plan to block users, police the right authority, says DoT

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has said it has no plans to ask mobile operators to block customers who are allegedly sending obscene messages through WhatsApp as law enforcement agencies like police are the right authority to deal with the problem.

The DoT said this after FE reported last week that the government is going to take action against senders of violent or vulgar messages by asking mobile operators to block such users. This was based on a DoT letter dated February 19 to telecom service providers by Ashish Joshi, controller communications, in a subordinate office of the department. The letter asked the telcos to take immediate action against those customers against whom complaints of sending obscene messages had been received along with a screenshots as it violated the customer declaration in the customer application form (CAF).