WhatsApp Limiting Mass Sending to Just 5 People to Fight Fake News

In the context of always on, always available internet, rather easily attainable viral statuses, and a plethora of social media mediums to choose from, how do we curb the spread of fake news?

The answer to a certain portion of that question boils down to five.

Five what you ask?

According to multiple sources, and I really actually mean more than just ‘multiple’ sources, Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp announced that it would be limiting the number of times a user can forward a message to five, down from 20, starting on Monday (which is yesterday), as the popular messaging service looks to fight “misinformation and rumors” according to company executives.

If it’s on page 3 of Google Search and they are relevant results, you know it’s legit news

WhatsApp

If you are unaware, WhatsApp was launched in 2009 and was bought over by Facebook for approximately USD 19.3 billion (approx SGD 26.2 billion).

In the 10th year since its inception, WhatsApp has now risen the ranks to be the third most popular “virtual communities” after Facebook and YouTube with 1.5 billion active users accounts.

If we factor in the fact that Facebook and Youtube are more social media platforms than messaging ones, WhatsApp currently reigns supreme on the list of messaging platforms.

Chey.

Though you’ve got to admit that in Singapore, the younger folks are moving on to Telegram.

Taking a cue from India and Brazil

According to ChannelNewsAsia:

“WhatsApp, which has around 1.5 billion users, has been trying to find ways to stop misuse of the app, following global concern that the platform was being used to spread fake news, manipulated photos, videos without context, and audio hoaxes, with no way to monitor their origin or full reach.”

Such “global concern” recently arose in Brazil when the “messaging service became part of the political battleground in Brazil’s presidential election last October, with far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro facing claims of using the app to spread falsehoods related to his main opponent”, according to the report.

Bolsonaro, who ended up winning by a landslide, has denied the charges.

Even closer to home, in India -WhatsApp’s largest market with more than 200 million users – a spate of at least 30 lynchings across the country were blamed on incendiary messages spread using the app.

While not a new phenomenon in India, drastic action was taken by WhatsApp to first introduce the five-forward limit there, as opposed to the then globally introduced  20-forward limit.

According to The Guardian, the five/20 – forward limit “introduced last summer along with another feature to clearly label forwarded messages and the removal of a quick-forward button next to images, video and audio clips …  reduced forwarding by 25% globally and more than that in India, which had one of the highest forwarding rates in the world.”

Five-forward Limit

‘Quick-forward’ to this day, WhatsApp released an update on 21 January to activate the new five-forward limit.

Android system users will receive the update first, followed by users of Apple Inc’s iOS.

As “the app’s end-to-end encryption allows groups of hundreds of users to exchange texts, photos and video beyond the oversight of independent fact checkers or even the platform itself” according to CNA, Carl Woog, the head of communications at WhatsApp, told The Guardian on Monday that WhatsApp had”settled on five because [they] believe this [was] a reasonable number to reach close friends while helping prevent abuse.”

In other words, come this CNY, we aren’t gonna receive as many of those forwarded CNY messages compered to yesteryears right?

Damn, that’s progress I say.