new delhi jul 19 india today expressed dissatisfaction over measures listed by whatsapp for checking fake news that have in several cases led to mob violence saying the company cannot escape its responsibility for such rampant abuse and needs to find originators of provocative messages in the second notice to the usbased messaging service in three weeks the government warned that in the absence of adequate checks it will treat the messaging platform as abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences will follow facebookowned whatsapp has been under fire from the indian government over fake news and false information being circulated on its messaging platform such messages have incited mobfury triggering multiple cases of lynching across the country the government had in the past too issued a stern warning to the company to clamp down on hoax messages designed to provoke and instigate people in response whatsapp introduced a new feature to let its users identify the forwarded messages and brought out fullpage ads giving easy tips to spot fake news when rumours and fake news get propagated by mischief mongers the medium used for such propagation cannot evade responsibility and accountability if they remain mute spectators they are liable to be treated as abettors and thereafter face consequent legal action the it ministry said in a statement today the ministry said it has approached whatsapp to bring more effective solutions to the table to ensure greater accountability and facilitate enforcement of law beyond the existing efforts towards labelling forwards and identifying fake news it has been conveyed to them in unmistakable terms that it is a very serious issue which deserves a more sensitive response it said taking note of the recent incident in bidar where a 32yearold software engineer was killed after messages about child lifters did the rounds on whatsapp the ministry rued that rampant circulation of irresponsible messages in large volumes on the platform have not been addressed adequately by the company it is regretted that the enormity of the challenge and the rampant abuse happening in the country leading to repeated commissioning of crimes pursuant to rampant circulation of irresponsible messages in large volumes on their platform have not been addressed adequately by whatsapp it said earlier today law and it minister ravi shankar prasad informed the rajya sabha that he will hold discussion with stakeholders including political parties to evolve a policy to deal with the misuse of social media prasad had earlier told whatsapp that the platform cannot evade accountability and responsibility in response whatsapp announced a new feature to let its users identify the messages that are forwarded the messaging service also brought out fullpage advertisements in leading newspapers first in the series of its user awareness campaign giving easy tips to decide if information received is indeed true at the same time whatsapp had informed the centre that fake news misinformation and hoaxes can be checked by the government civil society and technology companies working together outlining steps it has