WhatsApp, one of the largest instant messaging service provider, has been facing issues of spam through bulk messaging. Now, in order to curb bulk messaging through its platform, the company is now going a step forward and has decided to sue businesses engaged in such activities.
The company has said that it will take legal action against businesses engaged in or assisting others in abusing automated or bulk messaging on its platform. However, this is for the WhatsApp Business and not the standard WhatsApp that most of its users are using.
For businesses, the company has built two tools — the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business API. These tools are built in order to help companies manage customer interactions.
Explaining its position regarding suing businesses, the company said that its products are not intended for bulk or automated messaging. It added that both of them have always been a violation of its terms of service.
In a statement announcing this, Facebook-owned platform said: “WhatsApp will take legal action against those we determine are engaged in or assisting others in abuse that violates our terms of service, such as automated or bulk messaging, or non-personal use, even if that determination is based on information solely available to us off our platform.”
The off-platform information which WhatsApp is citing includes public claims from companies about their ability to use WhatsApp in ways that violate its terms. On this, the company said: “This serves as notice that we will take legal action against companies for which we only have off-platform evidence of abuse if that abuse continues beyond December 7, 2019, or if those companies are linked to on-platform evidence of abuse before that date.”
While WhatsApp has been among the leading IM platforms, it has faced issues which usually comes with scaling at this level. The platform has said that it bans over two million accounts per month for bulk or automated behaviour.
The company said that along with technological enforcement, the company also takes legal action against individuals or companies that it links to on-platform evidence of such abuse.
