WhatsApp India: launches fact check service in India before the election
WhatsApp will launch a new fact-checking service in India before the upcoming elections in the country. Reuters reported that users can now forward messages to the Checkpoint Tipline, and teams led by local startup Proto will evaluate and mark them as “real”, “wrong”, “misleading” or “controversial.” These messages will also be used to create databases to study and understand the spread of error messages. The election in India will begin on April 11th and the final result is expected to be held on May 23.
Facebook’s messaging services are constantly being attacked by promoting the spread of false and misleading information in India, where viral rumors are associated with dozens of deaths. During the Brazilian election last year, WhatsApp was also accused of promoting the spread of viral information.
The initiative hopes to “large-scale study of the phenomenon of error information”
According to Reuters, WhatsApp’s fact-checking service was launched on Tuesday and may have some initial problems. Two hours later, the news reported by the store is still waiting for classification.
According to Proto’s founders Ritvvij Parrikh and Nasr ul Hadi, the goal of the new plan is to “make a large-scale study of the wrong information phenomenon.” They added: “As more data flows in, we will be able to identify the most vulnerable or affected. The people affected. Problems, places, languages, regions, etc. “The Economic Times India pointed out that the startup plans to submit its findings to the International Journalist Center.
WhatsApp India Checkpoint Tipline will support a total of five languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam – this service will support error messages in the form of text, video and images. In addition, WhatsApp recently tested the ability to add user-reversed image search images, apparently for the user to verify its authenticity.
Together with Proto, WhatsApp India also works with Dig Deep Media and Meedan, which have contributed to similar projects in other countries. Meedan’s Check platform was originally developed to combat the misinformation that was spread during the French and Mexican elections and is now integrated with WhatsApp’s Business API.
Checkpoint Tipline is just one of a series of changes that WhatsApp has made to prevent error message propagation services. The service also limits the number of times a message can be forwarded to five, and now also applies a label to any forwarded message.
However, the encryption features of WhatsApp make it a particularly difficult platform to standardize, because even the organization itself cannot view the messages being sent. Facebook recently announced that it has removed 549 Facebook accounts and 138 pages in order to coordinate untrue behavior in India, but WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption means that tracking similar behavior on messaging services is much more difficult.
