After the government’s directive to the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp to take steps to curb the spread of fake messages that have led to mob-lynchings, the messaging service said that it will run a pilot to limit the number of messages that can be forwarded.
This will ultimately apply to all users, the messaging app said after a series of violent incidents in India triggered by false social media messages.
WhatsApp said for India, it will also test a lower limit of five chats at once and remove the quick forward button next to media messages.
In a blogpsot, WhatsApp noted that its users in India “forward more messages, photos, and videos, than any other country in the world”.
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India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with more than 200 million users but it caused a public relations nightmare for the company when messages forwarded on its platform let to incidences of beating and death. The government reacted by asking the company to take immediate action.
On Thursday, the government shot off a second notice to WhatsApp asking it to come out with solutions beyond just labelling forwards.
It also warned the company that mediums used for propagation of rumours are liable to be treated as ‘abettors’ and can face legal consequences if they remain “mute spectators”. The company is yet to respond to the notice.
However, the blogpost said “these changes – which we’ll continue to evaluate – will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app”.
“We built WhatsApp as a private messaging app – a simple, secure, and reliable way to communicate with friends and family. And as we’ve added new features, we’ve been careful to try and keep that feeling of intimacy, which people say they love,” it said.
WhatsApp had introduced the option of forwarding multiple chats at once a few years ago, it added.
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