I wish there was a legal way to fight this.” “WhatsApp doesn’t really feel very personal anymore. It feels like harassment tbh,” Rao wrote to Rest of World. “It’s honestly such a frustrating experience now that WhatsApp has its business section. The unchecked rise of spam has, however, meant that the messaging platform that was once seen as a private and intimate space to communicate with friends and family now feels like a busy main street crowded with hawkers, at least 10 regular users of the app told Rest of World. Direct access to customers over WhatsApp is an exciting proposition for Indian businesses since a reported 80% of messages sent on the app are seen within five minutes, making the platform an incredibly more efficient outreach channel than email or SMS. Over the past year, the company has aggressively expanded its WhatsApp Business services in the country, allowing brands to reach out to customers, offer support, receive payments, and even verify documents. Meta’s WhatsApp is wildly popular in India, with around 550 million users in the country. “Since you typically have to provide a number for billing purposes, they don’t ever ask you if they can use it to reach out to you on WhatsApp.” Especially the store ones,” Rao told Rest of Word, over Twitter direct messages. “I don’t remember giving explicit permission to most of these businesses. Verified handles, bearing green check marks, from businesses such as shopping app Flipkart, retail chain Croma, delivery app Zepto, fashion store Lifestyle, insurance provider BankBazaar, and others are flooding her personal WhatsApp chats. Rao told Rest of World that she first began noticing business outreach messages on WhatsApp at the end of 2021, but, in the past six months, it has become incessant. That day, the first 10 messages on her WhatsApp were all boilerplate outreach from corporations, promoting products, deals, and discount coupons. Now it’s WhatsApp - can’t escape the spam,” Rao tweeted, expressing frustration about her favorite messaging app turning into a spam box. On July 18, Aishwarya Rao, a long-time WhatsApp user, was at her wit’s end when she decided to take to Twitter.

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