'No! The government is doing no such thing': PIB team busts myth about govt reading WhatsApp messages

The Government of India's official Twitter channel, PIB Fact Check, has taken to social media to address a misleading claim circulating on WhatsApp. The claim suggested that the government was monitoring and reading individual messages on the messaging platform.

PIB Fact Check released a statement to counter this assertion, stating that the claim was false. To explain the myth, they tweeted an image displaying various indicators used by WhatsApp to signify different message statuses. The message claimed that a single tick denotes that a message has been sent, while two blue ticks confirm that the message has been read. These are widely recognized features of WhatsApp.

However, the miscreants behind the misleading claim added additional indicators to create confusion. According to their concocted information, three blue ticks were meant to imply that the government had taken note of the message, while a combination of two blue and one red tick indicated that the government could take action against the sender. Moreover, a combination of one blue and two red ticks allegedly indicated that the government was scrutinizing the sender's data. Lastly, the claim stated that three red ticks meant that the government had initiated legal action, and the sender would receive a court summons.

#Fake News Alert !

Messages circulating on Social Media reading 'WhatsApp info regarding √ tick marks' is #FAKE.#PIBFactCheck : No! The Government is doing no such thing. The message is #FAKE.

Beware of rumours! pic.twitter.com/GAGEnbOLdY

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 7, 2020

PIB Fact Check clarified that the official WhatsApp platform does not use red ticks for message status. Instead, it employs grey ticks that turn blue when a recipient reads the message. Therefore, any image suggesting red ticks on WhatsApp and government monitoring is unequivocally fake.

The clarification emphasized that the Government of India does not monitor private messages on WhatsApp or any other social media platform. There is no initiation of action based solely on the content of personal messages. Furthermore, the Supreme Court of India has previously stated that WhatsApp messages hold no evidential value, reinforcing the point that such claims are baseless.

WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption for its messaging services which also covers images and videos sent within the group and individual chats. What this means is that even the messaging service won't have access to the text shared within the chats.

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