WhatsApp group in India found spreading child pornography, Israeli online safety startup AntiToxin Technologies revealed. The firm in its probe found that many Indian WhatsApp users and WhatsApp groups are among those who spread child pornography hiding behind the company's end-to-end encryption.

According to an Economic Times report, these WhatsApp groups were discovered via third party apps that often included “adult” sections and offered invite links to other users trading images of child exploitation.

“We did, in fact, find Indian users and groups that were disseminating child pornography. I don’t have an exact number, but there was a considerable amount of participants with “+91” as the (India) international access code for the phone numbers that identified them as participants in these groups,” AntiToxin’s CMO Roi Carthy told the newspaper.

According to the report, the investogation was conducted only on WhatsApp public groups. Under the public groups, users add themselves to the group via an invite link. The feature was introduced by the messaging app in 2016.

WhatsApp's ‘end-to-end encryption’ feature ensures that messages can only be read by the sender, receiver, and not anyone else. WhatsApp, government agencies, Facebook, nobody can read or see messages sent on the app.

"We deploy our most advanced technology, including artificial intelligence to scan profile photos and actively ban accounts suspected of sharing this vile content. We also respond to law enforcement requests in India and around the world," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email.

"Sadly, because both app stores and communications services are being misused to spread abusive content, technology companies must work together to stop it."

Meanwhile, WhatsApp has just rolled out a new update in the beta channel for iOS users. As part of this new update, the version number of the app is now 2.19.10.21 and it comes also with a number of new features.

According to a detailed report by WABetaInfo, the new changes and features include the ability to add stickers on photos, videos, or GIFs before sending them to the other WhatsApp users. This means that users can add content stickers such as time and location, personal stickers from third-party apps or from included sticker packs and even Emojis.