WhatsApp, one of the most popular instant messaging platforms on worldwide, has rolled out a brand new feature in choose markets that makes it easier for users to verify whether the assertions made in messages they have received on the app are true.
The FB -owned service has enabled users in Italy,Brazil, Eire, Mexico, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. to click on a magnifying glass-shaped icon next to often forwarded messages — those that have been forwarded at the least 5 times — to search the web for their contents and verify them.
WhatsApp stated the brand new feature, called “search the web,” works by allowing users to add the text message through their browser. Which means that WhatsApp itself never sees the content of any message, it mentioned in a blog post. (The feature at present doesn't support looking up images and videos.)
The function, available throughout WhatsApp’s Android, iOS and Web apps, is in pilot stage, the messaging platform mentioned. It stays unclear how soon WhatsApp intends to roll out this feature, which it began testing a number of months in the past, to users across the globe.
However regardless, the new feature comes at a time when WhatsApp and other messaging platforms are being used more often than ever earlier than as individuals keep in touch with their buddies, households and colleagues at the peak of a worldwide pandemic.
WhatsApp, which has been forced to confront the spread of misinformation on its platform lately, has introduced a number of features and imposed restrictions to better management the flow in the past 12 months.
In April, WhatsApp put in place extra restriction on how frequently a message could be shared on its platform. WhatsApp mentioned that any message that has been forwarded 5 or more times will now face a brand new limit that can prevent a person from forwarding it to more than one chat (contact) at a time. Weeks later, quantity of “highly forwarded” messages had already dropped by 70% globally, it claimed.
WhatsApp has additionally partnered with a number of fact-checking organizations throughout the globe to assist individuals confirm claims made in viral messages.
Although WhatsApp has visibly rushed to take timely actions in recent quarters, misinformation has not vanished from the app. Ill-informed explanations about a number of of Indian government’s current decisions and “cures” of COVID-19 were still doing rounds on the platform a couple of months ago in India, its biggest market, for example.
There’s only a lot a tech agency can do to fight human stupidity.
