After SC rap, WhatsApp appoints Grievance Officer for India
New Delhi, Sep 23: After being pulled up by the Supreme Court for not appointing a Grievance Officer and complying with other laws of India, WhatsApp on Sunday appointed Komal Lahiri as the Grievance Officer for the country.
Based out of WhatsApp's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, Lahiri can be contacted via email and general post by over 200 million users in the country.
"To contact the Grievance Officer, please send an email with your complaint or concern and sign with an electronic signature.
"If you're contacting us about a specific account, please include your phone number in full international format, including the country code," said the FAQ under the security and privacy settings.
If you want to contact WhatsApp, go to Settings, then Help and Contact Us section.
"You can contact the Grievance Officer with complaints or concerns, including the following: WhatsApp's Terms of Service and Questions about your account," read the information.
"If you're a law enforcement official, please read our information for law enforcement authorities and how you can contact us," it added.
The move came after the Supreme Court on August 27 issued notice to the Centre and WhatsApp over a plea that said while companies like Facebook and Google have appointed Grievance Officers for users in India, WhatsApp has not.
"In order to make WhatsApp accountable, it must be directed to comply with Indian laws and appoint a Grievance Officer who shall address grievances of the consumers as well as co-ordinate with investigating agencies," said the plea.
Every user has a number on WhatsApp but the messaging platform does not have a number through which the users can contact the company for grievance redressal, it added.
Last month, Union Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also told WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels to comply with the Indian laws and take "suitable" steps to prevent misuse of the instant messaging platform in the country.
Daniels' meeting with the IT Minister came against the backdrop of several incidents of mob lynching being linked to the circulation of fake messages and misinformation on the instant messaging platform.
Prasad told Daniels to set up a grievance officer in India, establish a corporate entity and comply with the laws of the country.
Daniels said he would undertake these initiatives.
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RJD surprise element in J’khand polls, party candidates leading in 5 of 6 assembly seats
Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.
RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.
In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.
In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.
RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.
In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.
Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.
Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.
RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.
Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.
Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.
