In India, the message forwarding feature was used to help spread fake rumors that led to mob violence and the deaths of two dozen innocent people. There, WhatsApp is capping the message forwarding to five contacts; elsewhere it will be 20.
WhatsApp is limiting how many people you can forward messages to after the feature was abused to spread false rumors in India that led to mob violence.
WhatsApp is capping message forwarding to 20 contacts at one time. Previously, you could bulk forward a message to over 250 contacts at once.
However, the conditions are even more strict in India; WhatsApp is capping the message forwarding to only five contacts, making it more of a hassle to circulate content to large groups. It’s also axing the quick forward button next to messages containing media.
In India, WhatsApp has over 200 million users. But in recent months, the app was used to spread false rumors about child kidnappings, inciting angry mobs to kill two dozen innocent people since April, according to The New York Times. In some instances, the violence was sparked when video clips purporting to show the kidnappings went viral.
In response, the Indian government demanded that WhatsApp take action to stop the fake information from spreading over the messaging service.
WhatsApp said the new limits, for now, are only a test. “We believe that these changes—which we’ll continue to evaluate—will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app,” it said in a blog post on Thursday.
The change comes as Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, is trying to rein in the dark side of social media use. On Wednesday, the company told the press it was going to remove fake information on Facebook that could lead to physical violence, meaning it’ll move beyond simply policing against hate speech and direct threats.
The new policy particularly targets Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where false news on Facebook has been blamed for sparking violence against Muslims.
