NEW DELHI/MUMBAI - WhatsApp clones and software tools that cost as little as $14 (Rs 1000) are helping Indian digital marketers and political activists bypass anti-spam restrictions set up by the world’s most popular messaging app, Reuters has found. After false messages on WhatsApp last year sparked mob lynchings in India, the company restricted forwarding of a message to only five users. The software tools appear to overcome those restrictions, allowing users to reach thousands of people at once. At least three software tools were available on Amazon.com’s India website. “How many messages you want to send, tell us: 10,000, 1 million, 2 million,” a representative asked, while showing a black-coloured, password-protected website they use for sending bulk WhatsApp messages.

Source: Huffington Post May 16, 2019 03:00 UTC