Curbing fake news menace

Whatsapp, probably the most popular social messaging service, is making some noteworthy changes in the application in an effort to stop people from spreading fake news. The Facebook-owned application has made it harder for people to forward messages to very large groups. The changes have been made in light of various allegations that have surfaced against Whatsapp for its role in spreading dangerous and inaccurate information, which according to the critics have fueled violence in Myanmar and India.

According to the information provided by the social networking giant in a blog post, its plan is to limit the number of people to whom users can forward messages, theoretically, making it harder for fake information to go viral. Globally, users will now be able to forward messages to just 20 people, although that will be limited to only five in India. The previous limit was over 250. It is also eliminating the ‘quick forward’ (a button next to multimedia messages that made photos and videos even faster to pass along) option in India.

Whatsapp will now allow users to send forward messages to just 20 people, which is limited to only five in India