Vulgar videos made on Chinese apps now infiltrate WhatsApp

New Delhi: These may be exciting times for Chinese short video-sharing apps that have invaded smartphone users, especially in the Tier III and IV towns in India. But the steep rise in the popularity of apps like Tik Tok, Likee, Vigo Video and others has left the government as well as citizens baffled for one simple reason: An unabated rise in explicit, crass and inappropriate videos.
To their horror, the titillating videos made on these apps have now found a bigger mobile-based messaging medium to corrupt young minds: Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
WhatsApp with over 300 million users in India has become the one-stop shop for the circulation of videos showing scantily-clad girls dancing to vulgar tunes, adult jokes and explicit “funny” messages presented by homely girls being created in the narrow dingy by-lanes of small towns on such Chinese apps.
Although tech firms claim to have smart algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based systems along with human teams in place to check objectionable content, it is fast spreading.
Both WhatsApp and TikTok went silent over queries sent to them. Tik Tok directed us to an old statement that “we are committed to continuously enhancing our safety features as a testament to our ongoing commitment to our users in India”.
According to Pavan Duggal, country’s top cyber law expert and a senior Supreme Court advocate, the only way to stop massive circulation of vulgar videos on mobile applications is to address the issue of intermediary liability.