Restriction in WhatsApp forward message feature
Posted on: 09/Aug/2018 1:04:17 PM
WhatsApp officially announced the restriction in the forward message feature, a safety step to avoid false news and rumors spreading all across the nation rapidly. This limitation of WhatsApp forward is immediately processed in India allowing only five users to get a forward from a single account. The Facebook owned company released the official news for the press on last Wednesday about the forward message restriction in India.
Many lynching incidents correlated with degradation of minority rights in the whole nation takes place with the rapid spread of forward messages. With this limitation in the feature the widespread of rumors and false news can be easily prevented. The new update of the WhatsApp will ensure the special feature accounting for the safety of people through private messaging platforms.
One of the reports from WhatsApp confirms the deletion of quick forward option from the media messages to ensure the public safety. The actual purpose of a messaging platform like WhatsApp is to make the private conversation and group networking on a very efficient scale. But the false information outburst destroys the actual theme of the messaging platforms as the power of sharing and network obtained by many socially retarded individuals.
The primary importance lies on the hands of individual users who should double check the facts and to verify the authenticity of an information before forwarding it to multiple users. Using the spam and blocking options when one notices a false or fake news can largely contribute for public safety. In India the media file forwards are higher than other countries making it a form of chaos in many sensitive situations. In other countries WhatsApp allows up to 20 users for sending forward while restricting it to five for India.
A whopping 39 lynching incidents are the results of false information spread through WhatsApp and so the government stepped into making related measures to prevent such type of crimes. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) sent out a letter to telecommunication companies to look out for possible options blocking social media platforms in times of emergency. But people have their own rights to share information privately with their own logical judgement. So identifying a fake news or misinformation through scientific approaches should be the first option for the government and not completely putting down the whole networking option.
WhatsApp is also testing an option called Suspicious links on its beta version platform. If the news is found fake or suspicious it will be marked red. If the user further continues to click on the red marked link a pop up will emerge to warn them about the content before sharing it to others.
