WhatsApp to be no slingshot is more for mass, Fake News, and restricts the forwarding function for users solid. The service will stay again private exchange reserved.
Berlin – A recent example from India shows, how easy it was previously, by WhatsApp rumors. In the fight against the spread of false messages from the Messenger limits the forwarding of messages now in the world.
After a half-year Test Phase, can send users messages in the future, in General, only to a limited circle of five receivers, it said in a Blog entry for the Messenger service. So far, messages could be up to 20 Chat participants sent.
Lynch murders in India as a trigger for action
With the restriction of the use of the possibilities of the Facebook group responded, among other things, to incidents in India, where the new rules have already been tested for a while. There it was in the past year, a number of Lynch murders. Triggers were in each case via WhatsApp messages sent Incorrectly. WhatsApp mass spread Fake News, however, were criticised in Brazil during the elections in October.
In India, for example, is a shortened Video, that was actually been used by an organization to raise awareness of the dangers of child abduction created, mass-distributed. The end of the video, in which the children were brought up with a warning in front of Strangers again, back was cut out. In the result, there were dozens of attacks of Mobs on alleged child kidnappers. Last summer, the Indian government had asked the US company to take immediate action.
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Indian government exerted massive pressure on WhatsApp
India is one of more than 200 million users as the largest market for WhatsApp in the world. Lynch killings in the country already before, on Chat applications such as WhatsApp on false news based on rumors can spread many times faster. The massive printing of pages of the policy, the company launched in July, a Test on the restriction of the function for lines of 20 on five news. In addition, the forward button has been removed in addition to media messages.
Over a period of six months has now been the Feedback from users is evaluated, it said. The number of forwarded messages had been reduced to “globally significant”. “We decided to go for five, because we believe that this is a reasonable number to close friends and to prevent abuse,” said WhatsApp’s spokesman, Carl Woog, the British “Guardian”. Thus, the Chat-service is a tool primarily for private messages with your close contacts.
you can read here: This new WhatsApp feature was long overdue
dpa