The Indian Government Has Urged WhatsApp To Get User’s Consent Before Adding Them To Groups

If you are a regular user of WhatsApp and so do some of your relatives, you may have at least once, been added to groups that discuss something you do not care or know nothing about. The good news here is this issue may soon be gone.

The Indian Government has taken steps to stop this by advising WhatsApp to somehow ask for users consent before adding them to groups. The reason behind this action may not be to prevent the “good morning” greeting but it gives us more control over what we have to see.

By giving users the power to add others to groups even if that is against their will, WhatsApp has annoyed a lot of people to the verge that they brought this matter to some government agencies. These bureaus, in turn, informed the MeitY (short for Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).

This free messaging app has received the government proposals to urge them to come up with a solution to this problem. One of their suggestions is to ensure that the admin of groups have the phone number of the user he or she intends to add. Another option is to prevent a user who has already left a group for the second time being added the third time. However, what if you leave twice but someone else adds you back in? MeitY advised on these cases as well.

A viable solution should be to add a notification that tells users that someone wants them to be in certain groups. The popup should contain the name of the group and the person who is trying to add you. And of course, a reject and accept button.

I certainly hope that this popup or something similar will be introduced soon so that I do not have to delete dozens of posters every week.