WhatsApp adds features to check fake news, offers $50,000 reward for help
05 Jul 2018
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WhatsApp, the free messaging service operated by social media Facebook, has added a feature that allows its administrators to control who can post, after a series of fake videos led to brutal slayings of more than a dozen in more than five states - including eight dead in the past week alone.
Facebook has assured of more action in the wake of fake videos and child-lifting rumours that spurred mobs to targeting innocent people across India over the last two years. WhatsApp also offered $50,000 for help to tackle fake news after mob killings, prompting a comment by IT minister that tackling fake news cannot be rocket science.
The government had expressed ‘deep disapproval’ over the company’s inability to clamp down on ‘irresponsible and explosive material’.
According to media reports, over 30 people have been killed in the past one year by lynching mobs after rumours of child lifting triggered via messages on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp on Wednesday listed measures to prevent the spread of false information in India even as the government underlined the need for the messaging platform to do more while calling its response “prompt”.
The measures include updates for group chats and the potential launch of a specific label to identify forwarded messages. The firm plans to create a system for preventing the spread of fake news and provocative texts in consultation with experts and law-enforcement agents.
The measures were listed in a letter written in response to a government missive expressing “deep disapproval” about WhatsApp’s inability to prevent the spread of “irresponsible and explosive material”.
“We’re horrified by these terrible acts of violence and wanted to respond quickly to the very important issues you have raised,” WhatsApp said in its letter to the government.
Fake videos and rumours of child-lifting circulated via WhatsApp have triggered lynchings in at least eight states.
Union information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the California-based company’s response carried assurances but they were not enough. “Social media platforms cannot be allowed to abuse India by forces inimical to the country.”
Prasad called on social media companies to work closely with the government to ensure their platforms are not used to harm people.
“India is WhatsApp’s largest market. That bestows upon them an important responsibility and accountability. Their network has been misused for instigating killings.”
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