Power and Authority Obstruct the Process of Detecting Spam on OTT Platforms

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the industry regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), have had mixed results in detecting spam and online scams on OTT platforms. WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, highlighting the jurisdictional complexities associated with enforcing restrictions on potential offenders, officials said.

An official stated that while WhatsApp is cooperating with the DoT to some level and has blacklisted numbers as asked by the government, there is no evident control over Telegram and Signal platforms, which must take real actions to combat scams. "WhatsApp remains committed to ensuring a safe and secure user experience, including weeding out bad actors from the platform," according to a company representative.

"We continue to invest significantly in product safety features... that help to automatically screen out spam, frauds, and calls from unknown numbers... Our powerful spam detection system inhibits automated use of our services, and we ban accounts that attempt to spam others." The company banned more than 6 million accounts in July, according to the spokesperson.

To be clear, OTT platforms are not subject to DoT regulation, and any necessary action must be done by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) in accordance with the IT Act's intermediary requirements. The DoT can collaborate with OTT platforms but cannot take action against them. The DoT has asked Meity several times for assistance with OTT apps, primarily Signal and Telegram, but there has been little success. One official stated that the DoT has blacklisted almost 20 million cell numbers so far, but there has been little progress on Signal and Telegram.

Telcos Are Concerned The telecom providers have been spotlighting the issue of increasing spam on OTT platforms, and all attempts to curb the scourge do not work on OTTs because they are not controlled by the DoT or Trai. As part of its efforts to combat spam, the regulator regularly exchanges phone numbers, as well as headers and templates from commercial communications, with telcos for filtering. However, more than 55% of the data comes from OTTs, for which telcos have no control.

When the regulator directs telcos to block numbers for spam, the associated OTT numbers must also be blacklisted. However, because telcos are unable to do so, the DoT provides the numbers to platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram for banning, which they must then execute themselves. However, unlike telecoms, OTT providers are not required to ban numbers.

Furthermore, overseas numbers continue to be used for spam, and carriers have little control over them. Bharti Airtel, which recently developed an AI-based solution to combat spam, has also stated that the technology will not function with OTT apps. "That's a pain point. We have been quite forthright with the DoT and the regulator about cracking down hard, not just on calls and messages, but also on OTT calls and messages and RCS communications, which may lead to a lot of spam. We need a comprehensive regulatory framework," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal stated.