New Delhi: Facebook-owned WhatsApp – a Mobile messaging app – has recently announced the appointment of a grievance officer dedicated for India and updated a process on its website for its users to lodge their concerns and complaints in general including the one that they consider to be fake news.

The move by the company comes in the backdrop of a demand made by the government of India, asking the platform to come up with solutions along with grievance support to curb fake messages that triggered mob killings across the country. The company had availed the facility to complain to the ‘Grievance Officer for India’ through its website.

The update on the website gives details of how users can get help by using the mobile app, send an email or write in this regard to the grievance officer Komal Lahiri, who is currently based out of the US.

As per the details available on Lahiri’s LinkedIn profile, she is currently holding the position of senior director for global customer operations and localization at WhatsApp.

When inquired, a spokesperson from the company declined to comment over the matter but instead pointed out the public FAQ section on the website of the company that has got all these details.

As per the statement made by sources, the grievance officer was appointed by the company at the end of the August.

The website of the company WhatsApp details how the users can seek help from the company’s support team directly through the app under ‘Settings’ tab and if they want to escalate the complaint, they have the option to directly contact the grievance officer.

As per a section that comes within FAQs: “You (users) can contact the Grievance Officer with complaints or concerns, including the following: WhatsApp’s Terms of Service; and Questions about your account.”

The FAQs which are now in updated form also gives details of the whole mechanism for law enforcement officials to get help from WhatsApp.

The Indian government has been pressurizing the company to come up with solutions to curb the incidences of fake or false messages.

Currently, WhatsApp has got the biggest number of users from India with more than 200 million users. As a controlling measure to stop fake news spread over its platform, the company limited message forwards to five chats at a time and the quick forward button was removed to discourage mass forwarding. Along with that every message that a user receives from another person who in turn received the message from someone else is being labeled as ‘forwarded’ to help the end user to identify such kind of messages.

The appointment of the grievance officers comes at a time when the Supreme Court was about to hear a petition upon which it agreed last month about the allegation that WhatsApp does not comply with current Indian laws, including the provision stipulated to appoint a grievance officer. The top court had asked a for a reply over the matter within four weeks.

The move also comes amid the preparations for general elections slated to be held next year in India and the government here is taking a tough stance to curb the spread of misinformation through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

The government issued a warning to the messaging app company that it will consider the platform as an abettor of rumor propagation and will follow the legal procedure to push the company to oblige by the norms if it does not come up with solutions to the problems.

The company had received two notices in this regard from the government, and it said that it has started a process to establish a local corporate entity.

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