WhatsApp New Ad: Will This Lead To Curbing Fake News?

WhatsApp which has more or less in the centre of debates with respect to fake news concerning multiple domains, has now seemingly come out advertisements in mainstream media in an apparent bid to educate users on the vagaries of unreal content. Over the last week, there have been multiple advertisements in various regional medi in India targeted at WhatsApp users urging them to carefully analyse message content before sending these across to other recipients.

Now, USP of this development is that sensitive domains in India viz politics, religion, philosophy , and more could be identified (by WhatsApp users) relatively clearly and the content in the message concerning these domains could potentially be understood. The latest advertisement shows people about to forward messages received on WhatsApp to other recipients and then stopping in the nick of time after carefully reading and seemingly analysing the content.

After identifying fake news/content, these users refrain from forwarding the message to others. Then, there is a message to viewers to exercise caution when checking out WhatsApp content and forwarding these.

This advert comes at a time when there was increased criticism with respect to fake news spreading through popular instant messaging and social media services. Hence, you could share thoughts on combating fake news propagation through social media services. If you are a WhatsApp user, then it should not hurt to note that the key is in your hands to ensure propagation of only the right sort of content; not potentially damaging ones.

In related news, WhatsApp for iOS users received the much-needed Group Calling button to initiate calls to three or more recipients at a time. iOS users could therefore check out the new Group Calling button and check out the effectiveness of the feature real-time. This should be live now; if not, the rollout could be a phased one with rollout time being the factor at this time.

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