Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General Francis Wangusi has warned administrators of WhatsApp groups that they will be held responsible for spreading falsehood and hate speech.
WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware and cross-platform instant messaging service for smartphones and the admins, as they are popularly known, have been urged to ensure that no rumours are spread through their groups and have been warned against misinforming members of the public.
Speaking during a stakeholders' breakfast meeting on elections preparedness at Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, Wangusi warned that his organisation would take full charge of the cyber space.
"Currently, we have identified 21 County WhatsApp platforms and we have told their administrators that they have to take action before we deal with them," he said.
He stated that CA had already started monitoring telecommunication gadgets and the content that was being shared to ensure perpetrators were brought to book.
It is not yet clear how the communications authority will effect its measures considering content sent via WhatsApp is encrypted.
Encryption is the process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorised parties can access it.
It does not in itself prevent interference but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor.
WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you're communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.
This is because your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them.
For added protection, every message you send has its own unique lock and key.
