With around 1.5 billion users who send over 60 billion messages every day, WhatsApp is one of the largest social networks in the world.
Just like Instagram, Messenger is part of the Facebook empire and has been struggling with the spread of fake news for some time. Now the Facebook subsidiary's forwarding function is to be revised and the spread of rumors and false information is to be restricted.
Number of recipients is decreasing – to the annoyance of many
This is to be made possible by reducing the number of recipients when forwarding messages. Previously, WhatsApp users could forward messages to up to 20 people at the same time - very useful when distributing funny pictures and videos. The change reduces the number to a maximum of five users - to the annoyance of many users.
The innovation is not unknown
Facebook implemented this restriction in India in 2018. There, various fake news stories led to violent riots - including murder. It remains to be seen whether the WhatsApp parent company's strategy will work. Due to end-to-end encryption, the distribution of such messages cannot be traced - according to the company. The change will be introduced with the next software update on iOS and Android. The update is due to be released this week.
