In early April, WhatsApp developers tried to stop the spread of fake news within the messenger. For this they mass transmission of āviralā messages. From now on, if a text has been forwarded to a chain of more than five people, users can only forward it to one person at a time. The innovation turned out to be effective, as evidenced by the developersā message about slowing down the spread of āviralā messages by as much as 70%.
The innovation was added due to the fact that many rumors were quickly spreading through WhatsApp, including about the COVID-19 coronavirus. Before the update, the user could select a message and send it to 256 interlocutors at once in a few clicks. Now that viral messages can only be sent to one person at a time, the spread of false information .
āWhatsApp is committed to doing its part in the fight against viral messages. We recently introduced a restriction on the transmission of frequently forwarded messages. Since the introduction of this restriction, the number of highly forwarded messages sent through WhatsApp has decreased by 70 percent globally,ā the company said.
With all this, the developers noted that it is important for them to preserve their messenger as a means for personal communication. They acknowledged that many people use WhatsApp to send memes, funny videos and useful information. They also noticed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, their messenger is being used to organize assistance for healthcare workers. Therefore, the ability to forward messages to at least a limited number of people still remains.
WhatsApp developers began fighting the spread of false information in their messenger back in 2018. Then they banned Indian users from sending messages to more than five people at the same time. During that time, the spread of misinformation slowed by 25%.
Source: 3dnews.ru
