[sterlind]

Simple: legally, treat WhatsApp groups as public message boards, and allow the local authorities to administer local WhatsApp groups the way you'd allow police to tear down signs put up on a cork-board in a public square.

It's not rocket science.

[sooheon]

I agree it's not rocket science, it might be harder because we're dealing with human behavior.

The Salem witch hunts happened with full support of the "local authorities" to run investigations, interrogations, trials, and hangings. It was not for a lack of administration.

Next month when there's an article about a corrupt official extorting farmers, are we to say "at least farmers can't communicate or organize without authority oversight?"

[Thiez]

Are you implying that whenever more than two people have a conversation on any chat application, the government should have the right to read along, for our own protection?

[sterlind]

Do you live in India?

WhatsApp is produced by Facebook, an American company. It has to obey the US government. If WhatsApp wishes to operate in India, it should provide a mechanism for the Indian government to administer it.

If it doesn't, India is well within their rights to sanction them. There's no shortage of skilled tech workers in India; Facebook needs India more than India needs Facebook.

[Thiez]

I do not. I don't live in the US either. Is that relevant?

I never suggested that WhatsApp doesn't have to obey the law in the countries it wishes to operate in. But it seems very strange to me that a discussion about the moral and ethical implications of software is now concluding with (paraphrasing you) "the solution is simple: whenever 3 people communicate online, they should be subject to government surveillance". Really? The developers of WhatsApp should have foreseen that people unaccustomed to the internet might kill people when sharing hoax videos, but you don't foresee any possible negative consequences to your proposed "simple" solution?

I think the cure you propose is worse than the disease, but if that is what India really wants then by all means let them pass a law to make it so. In that case I hope WhatsApp will create a separate app for India, because I wouldn't want to get into a group conversation with an Indian by accident.

Apart from that, I don't think your solution is as simple as you claim it to be. When people from different parts of India are in a group-chat, who is the local authority? What happens when some or all participants in a group chat move to a different place? If a foreigner visits India for one (minute/hour/day/week/month/year/decade), when do the local authorities get the right to enter all their group chats? Will they leave those chats when nobody remaining in the group chat is in India? Would this law apply to Indians abroad?