New Delhi:
The Facebook-owned social messaging platform WhatsApp is working on new updates for ‘forwarded’ message feature to counter fake news. The new feature will tell the user how many times the message has been forwarded. WhatsApp is working hard to fight fake news, rumours from spreading through social media. WhatsApp on Android shows two features on forwarding messages. One is the ‘Forwarding Info’ and the other is ‘Frequently Forwarded’, according to WABetaInfo.
The feature help users get more information about the messages being shared by them. WhatsApp also puts a global limit on forwarded messages to five people.
Earlier, ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said to check for fake news, social media platforms have been asked to appoint officers and take action against offenders. These "grievance officers" will take "necessary and prompt actions against the contents published on their platforms."
All major social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Google, WhatsApp are committed to accepting only pre-certified political advertisements, sharing expenditure on it with the Election Commission (EC) and adhering to the “silence period” that comes into effect 48 hours before the polls. "The [Election] Commission has also asked that print and social media be brought within the ambit of Section 126(1) of the Representation of the People Act so that the concept of 'silence period' is honoured and opinion polls are restricted," he said.
