WhatsApp CEO meets IT Minister, promises to sanitise platform

New Delhi : WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels on Tuesday met Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and promised to step up action to prevent the circulation of fake news and misinformation on its platform.

In a meeting here, Prasad reportedly told Daniels to appoint an officer for grievance redressal, comply with Indian laws and establish a proper corporate entity in the country.

"We had a productive meeting. WhatsApp is being misused to create misinformation and the social media platform has assured prompt action," Prasad told the media after the meeting.

Daniels' meeting with the IT Minister came in the backdrop of several incidents of mob lynchings across India owing to circulation of fake messages and misinformation on the instant messaging platform.

To tackle the spread of false information, the Facebook-owned platform has limited forward messaging to five chats for over 200 million users in India.