WhatsApp Rolls Out Campaigns To Create Awareness Against Fake News

New Delhi: WhatsApp, the world’s biggest messaging platform, has decided to run awareness campaigns against fake news being circulated on its platform.

The drive is aimed at sensitizing users to be able to recognize the authenticity of forwards.

After extensive research on Indian users, the Facebook-owned platform has come up with 60-second films on real-life scenarios that show how rumours and fake content spread through WhatsApp groups affects people.

These films also talks about ways to stop spread of such rumours and how to leave and block people and groups.

These will be telecast on TV and social media platforms such as Facebook. WhatsApp will also run similar campaigns on radio and print media channels.

Notably, the Indian government had asked the messaging platform to check such ‘spam’ messages and also warned that they would be treated as abettor of rumour propagation if it was not controlled.

WhatsApp had, however, declined the government’s demand for tracing the origin of such messages, stating that it would violate users’ privacy.

The government has adopted a tough stance against such rumours on social media platforms in view of the upcoming general elections.