As the accusations of fake news through Facebook is making rounds, WhatsApp has reduced the limit of forwarding messages to only five times (contacts or groups).
Several reports covered the accusations of Facebook being put on the radar for dispensation of fake news in Uncle Sam. Being the United States, that wasn’t something that could be swept under the carpet.
But it isn’t Facebook alone, WhatsApp Messenger was also said to be used as a channel for misinformation in Brazil. The heat and tension of the Presidential election in the nation made the matter worse.
As a bid to halt such an issue, WhatsApp has now put a cap on the number of times (5) you can forward a message on the platform. However, it covers both contacts and groups. If you’re forward to contacts alone, that’s only 5 people you can forward to.
Nonetheless, since groups have over 256 participants, you can still get the message across to over 1200 people if you forward to five WhatsApp groups. So, that’s to say the issue isn’t something that can be tackled overnight.
Prior to this, WhatsApp Messenger had this 5-time forwarding limit tried out in India. It was in the month of June, 2018 precisely. At this same time, the labelling of forwarded messages with the tag “Forwarded” was also introduced.
How it panned out in India wasn’t divulged to the public but we’re made to believe it helped to curb the issue a little. Normally, messages could be forwarded to 256 people on WhatsApp. This is an adjustment users will find difficult in adjusting to.
Meanwhile, another Facebook-owned enterprise, Instagram was in the news last week for advertising follower-selling companies it banned. Goodness, all these recent attention on Facebook. Can they live through it? That’s a story for another day.
Concentrating on the bone of contention, what’s your take on this new development from WhatsApp? Do you see it tackling the misinformation challenge?
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