New Delhi: Under pressure from the government to take steps to prevent spreading of rumours, WhatsApp on Friday announced that its users in India would be able to forward messages to only five chats at once. The company said it will also remove the quick forward button next to media messages. “We are launching a test to limit forwarding on WhatsApp. In India — where people forward more messages, photos, and videos, than any other country in the world — we’ll also test a lower limit of 5 chats at once and we’ll remove the quick forward button next to media messages,” said the company in a blog.
Currently, WhatsApp lets its subscribers forward a message to multiple chats at once. With more than 20 crore users, India is WhatsApp’s biggest market. “We believe that these changes — which we’ll continue to evaluate — will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app,” it said. “We are deeply committed to your safety and privacy which is why WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, and we’ll continue to improve our app with features like this one,” it added. The company’s announcement came after a spate of mob lynchings in the country were linked to messages that circulated on Whatsapp groups.
The Centre which had already told WhatsApp to rein in misuse had said that it wanted more effective measures to ensure accountability and ease law enforcement. “When rumours and fake news get propagated by mischief mongers, the medium used for such propagation cannot evade responsibility and accountability,” it had said. “If they remain mute spectators they are liable to be treated as abettors and thereafter face consequent legal action,” it had warned.
Under pressure, WhatsApp last week had launched a new feature which would indicate which messages are forwards. It helped user to determine if your friend or relative wrote the message they sent or if it originally came from someone else. The company had also brought out advertisements giving “easy tips” to detect fake messages.
