While WhatsApp is a platform for communication, it is also used that is also as a medium to spread untrustworthy (unverified, fake) information from various sources. Malicious sources distribute the messages to a small group, which in turn forwards them to millions of other users. With the platform slowly becoming a source for distribution of fake news, the Indian government had asked the developers to bring in new measures to filter such unwanted content. WhatsApp has already started working on several features, with the latest one labelling forwarded messages to alert recipients.
In their latest blog post, WhatsApp announced that the latest update of the messenger will now notify recipients whether the message has been forwarded by someone or not. Forwarded messages will be labelled with the ‘Forwarded’ tag on the top of the message box, indicating that the message hasn’t been written by the sender.
WhatsApp says, “this extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow. It also helps you determine if your friend or relative wrote the message they sent or if it originally came from someone else.” The company intends to reduce and eventually remove the distribution of fake news and misinformation from the platform. They also urge users to re-consider sharing a forwarded message and report offensive ones from within the app.
Users will able to see the new ‘Forwarded’ label after they update WhatsApp to the latest version from the PlayStore and the App Store.
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