We all know that the coronavirus pandemic has taken the whole world into its merciless fists. In this time of chaos when an average human like me and you, get any kind of information, we try to spread it to our friends and family. Informing friends and family isn’t a bad thing in particular. Whatsapp restriction of spread misinformation.The problem arises when we spread the information which we haven’t cross-checked ourselves. This results in the widespread of that false information causing a lot of damage.
Whatsapp has decided to take a step in controlling the dissemination of this false information. They have put a ban on the forwarding of messages to a group of people at one time. So that you can only send one supposedly forward message to one person at a time. This will make forwarding a little difficult.
Difficult forwarding means the reduction in the overall spread of this information. This step was taken by Whatsapp a few years ago as well. When they limited the forwarding to a maximum of 5 chats only since 2018. But this year it has been reduced to one. It can be seen on the Whatsapp web as well.
Also read our article on WHO bot on whatsapp.
These updates have been introduced by Whatsapp one by one for the past 3 years. So that users might not find them to be a major all at once change. For example, last year they introduced a “forwarded” tag with the messages that weren’t originally sent by the user. Then after some time they also introduced a new tag which indicates a frequently forwarded message so the user can know that the message they are getting has been forwarded many times, All this led to a general reduction in the spread of misinformation.
Now, this new measure should make the act of forwarding messages in bulk more tedious. To broadcast a hoax to all chats, the user will have to forward the same message to all chats one by one, so in addition to a restriction, it is a deterrent.
WhatsApp, however, does not advise against forwarding , since “we know that there are many users who forward useful information, as well as funny videos, memes and reflections or sentences that they consider important.” However, they explain that they have noticed “a significant increase in the number of forwardings that, according to some users, can be overwhelming and contribute to the dissemination of erroneous information.”
Another feature that was recently added to these messages is the web search button. This button allows you to search the text of the messages forwarded many times in Google so that the user can find the origin of that information and discover whether or not it is a hoax.
WhatsApp has not explained when this measure will come into force or if it will be necessary to update the app so that it begins to apply. We don’t know if Whatsapp web will have this option or not.