New Delhi: Following the widespread use of the WhatsApp chatbot over the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, WhatsApp India and the government are aiming to expand the bot’s functions to include dedicated medical opinion for online cancer consultations, as well as patient electronic history recording.
X-Ray Setu, an automated solution that assists with the interpretation of Chest X-Rays from low-resolution photos provided over WhatsApp, is one example.
MyGov Corona Helpdesk Chatbot was created with the intention of scheduling vaccination appointments and downloading immunisation certificates, but it has since expanded into a one-stop shop for accessing a range of official papers. Citizens will be able to download their driver’s licence, income tax returns, insurance certificates, and Class X/XII mark sheets, among other documents.
Tussles
According to a report by Business Standard, despite having run-ins with the government over many concerns relating to privacy, social media firms such as Whatsapp and Twitter have continued to engage with civic agencies to bring governance to the masses.
For example, in October of last year, the government submitted an affidavit in the Delhi High Court claiming that WhatsApp, as a foreign corporation, cannot use the court’s jurisdiction or dispute the validity of an Indian law under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
In May, the Facebook-owned messaging giant filed a lawsuit in the Indian high court, requesting that the traceability clause of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 be struck down, which requires social media platforms with more than 5 million users to locate “the first originator of the information” if local authorities demand it.
However, these difficulties have not prevented platforms with large user bases from cooperating with the government.
Several government-run institutions adopted Whatsapp as a favoured tool to deliver online lectures throughout the pandemic.
The situation is similar on platforms such as Twitter. Though the short message platform has battled the Indian government’s demand to remove content (tweets) from time to time, the government is attempting to limit free speech on this premise. The platform is used by a number of ministers to distribute information.
