Whatsapp Will Sue Users For Off-Platform Abuse Such As Bulk Messaging; AI Will Determine Violation

Facebook-owned Whatsapp has pledged to take legal action against individuals and companies who violate its Draconian rules by committing abuse. If being dragged to court by a tech giant is not scary enough, the company plans to take action against individuals and companies that even in case of  “off-platform evidence of abuse”

A.I.  Would Be The Judge of Your Actions

Starting from December 7, 2019, Whatsapp will take legal action against those who they believe are engaged in or assisting others in the abuse that violates their Terms of Service.

It identifies the abuse of its services as the use of automated spamming or bulk messaging, or non-personal use of the app, even if the decision is based on information wholly available to them is off-platform.

However many have criticized these standards of being too vague and doesn’t clear the air of what exactly stands as abuse under Whatsapp’s strict guidelines.

Off- Platform Ban Worthy Behaviour Includes This

According to Whatsapp anyone who leaves evidence of off-platform abuse after December 7, 2019, will also be under the company’s legal firing line.

Off- Platform ban evidence of ban-worthy behaviour includes claims from companies about their ability to use Whatsapp in a way that violates the Terms and Conditions of the company.

This is to serve as a notice that Whatsapp will take legal action upon companies against which they have off platform evidence of abuse if that abuse continues beyond December 7 or if these companies are linked to on-platform evidence of abuse before that date.

Use Of Machine Learning Classifiers To Ban Users

Whatsapp has claimed it, will ban users based on machine-learning classifiers in other words algorithms will proceed to subdue people who are messaging each other and sharing information.

The company hasn’t exactly disclosed how the algorithms to find the offenders of their questionable Terms of Serice will work, but the parent company has endless monitoring tools in its stockpile.

Whatsapp isn’t the only social media platform that has pulled off this move. In 2017 Twitter had stated that it would be surveilling the user’s activity both on and off the platform and would take necessary actions if found to be associated with violent organizations.

However, this move appears to be the part of the wider efforts by the parent company Facebook to pacify the demands of the public and the government to do more to in order prevent online abuse of its systems.