“We are continuing to step up our enforcement against imposter WhatsApp services and take legal action by sending cease and desist letters to hundreds of bulk messaging service providers to help curb abuse,” a spokeswoman said. WhatsApp declined a Reuters request to allow testing such tools for reporting this story.
When purchased by a Reuters reporter, they arrived as compact discs tucked inside thin cardboard casings, with no company branding.
#REUTERS WHATSAPP NEWS SOFTWARE#
Reuters found WhatsApp was misused in at least three ways in India for political campaigning: free clone apps available online were used by some BJP and Congress workers to manually forward messages on a mass basis software tools which allow users to automate delivery of WhatsApp messages and some firms offering political workers the chance to go onto a website and send bulk WhatsApp messages from anonymous numbers.Īt least three software tools were available on ’s India website. “Whatever WhatsApp does, there’s a workaround,” Repswal said during an interview at his small, two-bedroom house. Rohitash Repswal, who owns a digital marketing business in a cramped, residential neighborhood of New Delhi, said he ran a 1,000 rupee ($14) piece of software round-the-clock in recent months to send up to 100,000 WhatsApp messages a day for two BJP members. The software tools appear to overcome those restrictions, allowing users to reach thousands of people at once.ĭivya Spandana, the social media chief of the Congress, and the BJP’s IT head, Amit Malviya, did not respond requests for comment. With fervent campaigning in India’s staggered general election, which concludes on May 19, the demand for such tools has surged, according to digital companies and sources in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its main rival, the Congress party.Īfter false messages on WhatsApp last year sparked mob lynchings in India, the company restricted forwarding of a message to only five users. The activities highlight the challenges WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, faces in preventing abuse in India, its biggest market with more than 200 million users. Rohitash Repswal, a digital marketer, shows a software tool that appears to automate the process of sending messages to WhatsApp users, on a screen inside his office in New Delhi, India, May 8, 2019.
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