It was all too familiar; the kind of annoying messages that spammed mobile phone inboxes before rules were introduced to regulate telemarketing. This time though the medium was different. They came on Whatsapp, the popular messaging application.
The rules that apply to unwanted marketing calls and SMSes don’t apply on the messages sent on Whatsapp. In fact, the social media is largely unregulated, and some little-known telemarketers are using this regulatory vacuum to sell services that allow their customers to send hundreds and thousands of messages to Whatsapp users.
“It’s a new concept, but it’s a nuisance,” Maggu said, adding that he started getting such messages on Whatsapp three months ago. “I’ve deleted some old messages.” West Delhi-based Elion Technologies & Consulting Pvt Ltd is featured on a few online business-listing websites as a provider of bulk messages on Whatsapp.
A company representative said customers can opt for plans starting from 10,000 messages costing 30 paise each, plus taxes.
There’s a discount for larger orders. For instance, an order for a million messages to Whatsapp users costs 22 paise a piece, and the buyer has one full year to exhaust the inventory. It provides potential customers a trial run: register on its website, WhatsAppU.com, and get 25 credits to test the service.
The company also sells video and audio messages, as well as virtual visiting cards, for a higher fee. The messages can be sent bulk via computer. Sending unsolicited messages in bulk is a violation of Whatsapp’s terms of service and those doing so can be banned from using it, a Whatsapp spokesperson said.
“We have already taken legal action against many companies that do not adhere to our terms of service and try to send unsolicited messages to our users.” The spokesperson didn’t say whether Whatsapp has encountered violators of its rules in India, or what legal action did it take so far.
Elion Technologies and Ozone SMS, a reseller of bulk messages that it sources from Elion Technologies, didn’t respond to an emailed question on whether Whatsapp contacted them over any such issues. There are companies abroad which provide similar bulk messaging services.
According to a consultant tracking the social-media sector, sending bulk messages on Whatsapp doesn’t violate any existing law in India, and it is up to Whatsapp to decide what to do with them. Whatsapp is hugely popular in India and is still expanding fast.
In February, Chief Executive Jan Koum told ET that it had around 40 million active users in the country. It is free for the first year and after that the company charges $1 (Rs 59) a year. In an email response to ET’s queries, the spokesperson said the app offers users the facility to block the numbers that send them unsolicited messages.
But unlike in most email services, there isn’t any spam quarantine facility. Telecom industry executives said the marketers were taking the unregulated over-the-top (OTT) route since sending unsolicited messages on telecom networks is prohibited by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Since 2011, such promotional messages could be sent only to those who have opted for them and between 9 am and 9 pm.
Phone users calls can opt for the “Do Not Disturb” facility to prevent telemarketers from contacting them. Violation of the rules would invite heavy penalties, including blacklisting of the sender for two years. OTT services like Whatsapp and Facebook ride on telecom operators’ network but aren’t regulated like the telecom companies.
So, while the regulatory steps have helped curb unwanted marketing calls and SMSes, fast-developing technologies have opened up new opportunities to also bypass some of the rules, especially in the social media space. A senior regulatory official said they haven’t yet received any customer complaints on Whatsapp being used for sending bulk messages.
But, what the regulator can do is little, because it does not have any authority to look into matter such as this, this official added. An executive of the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, the CDMA lobby group, said the user can still decide whether or not to receive such messages.
“A mobile user chooses to get on Whatsapp. It isn’t similar to the text message service that comes automatically with a mobile connection,” this executive said. The executive indicated that unlike basic SMSes, the user has the option to get rid of unwanted messages by uninstalling Whatsapp or blocking the sender.
