Facebook's WhatsApp Battles Coronavirus Misinformation
April 07 2020 - 6:24AM
Dow Jones News
By Newley Purnell
Facebook Inc.'s WhatsApp is limiting users' ability to forward
content on its encrypted messaging platform, as misinformation
about the coronavirus pandemic proliferates on the service in its
biggest market, India.
In one of the biggest changes WhatsApp has made to a core
feature, the company said Tuesday that its more than two billion
users globally can now send along frequently forwarded messages
they receive to only one person or group at a time, down from
five.
In recent weeks the company has "seen a significant increase in
the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel
overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation,"
the company said.
WhatsApp is also testing a new feature that enables users to
click an icon next to frequently forwarded messages--those
forwarded at least five times--to search the web for their contents
and verify them before sending the message to others, a WhatsApp
spokeswoman said.
World-wide, Facebook, Twitter Inc. and YouTube, owned by
Alphabet Inc.'s Google, have been battling misinformation related
to the coronavirus on their platforms. The European Union is
reviving an alliance formed last year with U.S. tech companies to
fight online political disinformation, now focusing on false
information about the coronavirus.
While those platforms moderate content users post and can
eliminate problematic material, all WhatsApp messages are
encrypted. That helps turbocharge the spread of messages on
WhatsApp, analysts say, since they can't be traced to their
original senders.
Though WhatsApp's new measures apply globally and misinformation
is passed on everywhere, the problem is particularly acute in
developing countries such as India, its biggest market by users,
with 400 million.
Infections in India have jumped in recent days, with more than
4,700 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new
virus, and more than 130 deaths, according to data compiled by
Johns Hopkins University. Though the number is relatively small
given the country's population of 1.3 billion, the uptick prompted
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 to impose a nationwide
lockdown for three weeks.
That has sent many people indoors, where they are ramping up
their use of WhatsApp. They are blasting out messages, many well
intentioned but misguided, fueled by concerns about their health
and that of friends and family members. Independent fact-checking
groups and government officials say many of the messages contain
falsehoods.
"It's going through the roof," said Tarun Pathak, a New
Delhi-based technology analyst with research firm Counterpoint. "I
am receiving at least five fake messages every three hours."
One concern is limited digital literacy among many in India.
Hundreds of millions have gotten online for the first time in
recent years as mobile-data prices have plummeted.
Among the messages on WhatsApp that have circulated in India in
recent weeks, according to fact-checking groups, is a claim that a
treatment has been developed that cures Covid-19 within three
hours. Others say a disinfectant will be sprayed in cities at night
to kill the virus and that NASA satellite images show the
coronavirus has been abating in India. All were identified by fact
checkers as false.
India's Press Information Bureau last week debunked a popular
WhatsApp forward claiming the country's financial year would be
extended by three months because of the coronavirus. The bureau
also said one widely circulating WhatsApp message, apparently
designed to stop bogus WhatsApp forwards about the coronavirus by
claiming the government had declared such messages a "punishable
offense," was itself false.
Dubious messages have flourished on the service in recent years,
some leading to mob violence in India, and WhatsApp has made
earlier tweaks to try to stem the flow. In 2019 it trimmed to five
the number of individuals or groups users could forward messages
to, down from 20.
WhatsApp partnered with the World Health Organization and the
government of India last month to enable users to sign up to
receive verified coronavirus information from those groups through
the service. WhatsApp has also launched a page on its website about
the coronavirus, in partnership with groups such as the WHO and
Unicef.
WhatsApp also announced last month a $1 million grant to the
International Fact-Checking Network, part of the nonprofit Poynter
Institute. Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg
said last month that the WHO and governments have sent more than
100 million messages over WhatsApp.
Write to Newley Purnell at newley.purnell@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 07, 2020 07:09 ET (11:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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