WhatsApp Limits Message Forwarding To One Person At A Time

Social media platforms are trying out all measures to prevent spread of misinformation centred on COVID-19. Starting today, WhatsApp will put a limit on frequently forwarded messages in India. The Facebook-owned messaging platform has announced the restriction on frequently forwarded messages to slow down the spread of misinformation.

WhatsApp mentioned that the messages that have been previously forwarded 5 times or more can now only be forwarded to one chat at a time. Prior to this, WhatsApp set global limits on forwarded messages to constrain virality in January 2019. The Facebook-owned chat service also banned two million accounts per month for attempting to send bulk or automated messages.

Rest assured that WhatsApp is not snooping on your conversations. The instant-messaging service will identify such messages through the metadata. WhatsApp in a blog mentioned that the new changes have been done after noticing a "significant increase" in the number of forwards since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

WhatsApp also mentioned about a beta release of the app that will offer a measure to find out more information around these kinds of messages. The beta version will display a magnifying glass icon next to the frequently forwarded messages. WhatsApp users will have an option to send that message to a web search to identify if it's being mass spread on the platform. The feature is currently in testing and can help prevent spread of misinformation.

WhatsApp recently announced the WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNDP. It also launched the WHO Coronavirus Health Alert service and the MyGov Corona Helpdesk in partnership with the Government of India. These services are introduced to give prompt, reliable and official information on COVID-19.

With over two billion users worldwide, the new message forwarding limit can be a good measure to control the viral spread of any false information regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19). Such measures can help prevent misinformation in India where WhatsApp has more than 400 million users. The new restriction has been imposed for an indefinite period.