- The claim says that the Government of India has released a new WhatsApp guideline to monitor chats and take action against people.
- The false news claims that if there are three red ticks to the WhatsApp message, then the government has initiated action against you.
- To clarify, there are no red ticks on WhatsApp. Only grey ticks, which turn Blue when the sent message is read.
Fake and misleading news spreading on social media handles, especially on WhatsApp is something that is not new. One such misleading news that has been doing rounds on the Internet is that the government keeps track of what individuals are messaging on WhatsApp.
Someone who knows tech can laugh away such messages as WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted and only the sender and recipient will have such knowledge. But for others, the Indian government’s Twitter (now ‘X’, no thanks Elon) PIB Fact Check handle has clarified the fake news.
WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted
Claim: The Government of India has released a new #WhatsApp guideline to monitor chats and take action against people
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) July 30, 2023
#PIBFactCheck :
▪️ This message is #FAKE
▪️The Government has released no such guideline pic.twitter.com/QfinjvOEtu
- This all started with a baseless claim surfacing on the Internet that said the “Government of India has released a new WhatsApp guideline to monitor chats and take action against people”
- A single tick on WhatsApp means that the message is sent, double ticks mean the message is delivered and blue ticks mean the message has been read by the recipient. Until this point, this is something we already know.
- Now to the misleading part, people behind the baseless claim say that if there are three Blue ticks, the government has read the messages. Two Blue and one Red tick means that the government can take against you. If it’s a Blue tick and two red ticks, then the government is screening your data. Lastly, if there are three red ticks to the message, then the government has initiated an action against you and you will be receiving court summons shortly.
- PIB (Press Bureau of India) Fact Check handle has debunked the baseless claim and assured those that the government is not reading any messages.
There are no red ticks on WhatsApp
Firstly, there are no red ticks on WhatsApp. There are only grey ticks, which turn Blue when the sent message is read. So, it’s best to ignore any claim that says anything about a red tick and that the government is reading your messages.
PIB Fact Check clarified that the government of India does not read your WhatsApp or any other social media messages nor any action will be taken just for the message. The Supreme Court of India, on July 15 2021, said that WhatsApp messages do not serve any evidential value.
