WhatsApp Message Forwarding Restriction Is Now Live

0
WhatsApp

WhatsApp

With social media platforms trying to fight misinformation especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook-owned messaging platform, WhatsApp took the effort to limit forwarding messages in bulk. They recently announced that messages identified as highly forwarded(more than 5 chats)can only be forwarded to a single person.

This move is meant to reduce the speed at which messages spread via the chat app. Messages that have been forwarded many times are labelled with double arrows.

This new restriction is now live, on both the stable (v2.20.108) and beta (v2.20.122) channels.

Image Courtesy | Android Police

However, it’s a soft limit as users can simply copy and paste the message repeatedly but the amount of friction is meaningful as it raises the price of using the platform to spread misinformation, at least in terms of time.

Misinformation will still be shared but now slowly which will give fact-checkers more time to chase down the truth and promote it.

Previous articleDebunked: Safaricom Is Not Offering COVID-19 Cash Relief
Next articleYouTube Chapters Feature Begins Testing for Better Navigation While Watching Lengthy Videos
I brunch on consumer tech | first.last at techweez dot com