Govt to come down heavily on pesky WhatsApp messages

The government is planning to block not just pesky calls but also unsolicited messages via SMSes and social media platforms such as WhatsApp. According to new regulations still in works, a fresh algorithm is being written to run a check on phone numbers and messages to see if these are being used for marketing purposes or for hard-selling any product or services.

According to the current norms, promotional messages have to be sent via headers and not numbers. Through the ‘do not disturb’ (DND) registry, consumers can block these. However, marketing agencies send such messages through phone numbers to avert this norm.

Similarly, calls are made using different consumer phone numbers, instead of using telemarketing agency numbers which have a different series.

Officials said the algorithm will now check how many calls or messages the identified numbers have made. If the same runs into high double digits, they will be identified as ‘pesky’, be blocked, and a penalty will be levied on the owners of these numbers. Such offences, however, will not call for any criminal prosecution, as neither the Trai Act, nor the Consumer Protection Act provide for any criminal liability for such offences.

While the initiative in this regard has been taken by the department of consumer affairs, which oversees the Consumer Protection Act, the implementation of the same will be done by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

A joint discussion on such measures was carried out in a series of meetings, officials said. While checking spam calls falls under Trai’s jurisdiction, the CPA comes into play as such calls are also seen as unfair trade practices, misleading consumers.