The three-month long campaign focuses on educating users about the Meta-owned app’s in-built product features and safety tools to equip people with necessary safeguards to help in protecting them from online scams, frauds and account compromising threats.
“User safety is at the core of everything we do at WhatsApp which is why we’re launching our safety campaign “Stay Safe with WhatsApp,” in an effort to drive user-awareness around WhatsApp’s safety tools and product features that can help keep users safe from online scams and frauds”, Shivnath Thukral, director, Public Policy India, Meta, told Hindustan Times.
Over the years WhatsApp has added layers of security and protection with innovative features empowering users to take control of their online safety, he added.
“This campaign is an important reminder for people on how they can safeguard themselves in today’s digital first world and aims to reinforce consumer habits that ensure key safety features on WhatsApp become second nature to users so that they can stay safe from messaging scams and to protect their friends and family”, Thukral added.
The key safety features highlighted in the WhatsApp campaign include:
1. WhatsApp allows the users to add an extra layer of security to their account through the two-step verification feature. It requires a six-digit PIN while resetting and verifying the WhatsApp account. It becomes helpful in case a SIM card is stolen or the phone is compromised.
2. There are times when WhatsApp users get problematic messages from unknown numbers which could be suspicious links, request access to personal information among others. The messaging platform provides the users with the option to block and report those accounts.
3. WhatsApp has privacy settings to let users control their personal details including profile picture, last seen and online status, about info, status and who can see it. The users can control their online presence by selecting who can and cannot see when they are online.
4. The users can also decided who can add them to WhatsApp groups, thus increasing their privacy and prevent people from adding them to groups they don’t want to be a part of. The users can also exit the group without notifying anyone.
The safety campaign comes days after WhatsApp revealed it had banned nearly 46 lakh Indian accounts over complaints by users regarding violation of rules.
“Majority of accounts are spam-related and a lot of take down happened on an automated basis. We look at signals, like if an account is messaging thousands of people who are not in the contact list, we define it as a spam. Impersonation would be removed in two ways. It is broadly in the category of violation of terms of service when someone reports a number and we check it if there is a violation”, Thukral said.
“We feel automated spams can harm the users. They are bad actors which would deploy machines to spam the users”, he added.
When asked what measures the platform is taking on cracking down on fake news, especially over reports of WhatsApp groups misused to incite violence, Thukral said,”A bad actor would exploit any system or technology. We have an engagement with law enforcement agencies. We also tell the users about responsible behaviour. If you are a non-controversial person and get a suspicious message, you would report the message on our platform. There are fact checkers by which you can get it checked and probably share it in your community that it is a false news.”
