The world’s largest messaging app with a user base of over 1.5 billion, WhatsApp has been facing problems like spamming or bulk messaging for spreading fake news and selling products for quite a while now. WhatsApp says no more. The Facebook-owned company will now take legal action against users who send too many messages.
WhatsApp has already mentioned these rules when a user agrees with the Terms & Condition of the service. WhatsApp users are bared from contravening those rules according to an agreement they signed and now the company has pledged to pursue other punishments, too.
As per a new update being introduced to the WhatsApp’s FAQ section, from December 7, 2019, it will consider taking legal action against anyone found using the platform for activities such as “bulk or automated messaging”.
See Also: WhatsApp is now labeling ‘forwarded’ messages to prevent misinformation
The company states in its FAQ page that WhatsApp is meant to be used as a private messaging platform or for companies to interact with customers via its dedicated Business app, and from later this year it will not tolerate spam messages sent over its platform by and large.
There are several bulk-messaging service providers which guarantee results at incredibly low costs, especially in emerging markets like India. WhatsApp is now focused to take legal action against such service providers, as well as those spammers who claim to offer tools to bypass forwarding restrictions in WhatsApp. According to a statement by the company,
“We’re aware that some companies attempt to evade our machine learning systems, even as we work tirelessly to improve them. Using the on-platform information available within WhatsApp we’ve found and stopped millions of abusive accounts from operating on our service.”
WhatsApp has also affirmed in its FAQ page that such efforts to stop spamming behavior are “particularly important during elections where certain groups may attempt to send messages at scale”.
