War on fake news: WhatsApp testing 'suspicious link detection' feature

War on fake news: WhatsApp testing 'suspicious link detection' feature

War on fake news: WhatsApp testing 'suspicious link detection' feature on Business Standard. The company is testing this feature in a beta version of its Android app, in a bid to crack down on fake news

Latest News In yet another move to stem the spread of fake news and misinformation through its instant messaging app, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is testing a label, which marks “unusual” links sent on chats as “suspicious”.

The company is testing this feature in a beta version of its Android app, in a bid to crack down on fake news. The way it works is by identifying the characters in the link shared and noticing unusual patterns in the web address.

For instance, sometimes, characters are camouflaged to make suspicious sites seem real.

Recently, a fake email involving a UK company Global Sign was sent out to people with a link globalsign.uk, which is not a real company website, as the official website is hosted at globalsign.com. However, a lot of people apparently fell for the scam because the domain seemed realistic enough.

WhatsApp’s move comes at a time when the Indian government has been putting pressure on the company to act on the spread of fake news

through its platform. The government asked WhatsApp to limit spam on its platform and find ways through technology to stop false messages from circulating far and wide. This came on the heels of dozens of lynchings reported around the country, allegedly after rumours spread on the instant messaging app.

In this regard, the company wrote back to the government and reassured it of its commitment to tackling the problem of fake news in India.

WhatsApp has launched a slew of features since then as a way of displaying its commitment to stop the menace of fake news. Recently, the company introduced a ‘forwarded’ label for messages which are directly forwarded by people from one chat to another. This allows the user to think twice before believing what the text on the screen reads and forwarding it further, the company stated.

Reports suggest that the company is also looking to limit forwarding of messages for its users in India. The company is set to be mulling an update that will allow a message to be forwarded only five times by a user even though those five

people receiving it can forward it to five people each further. The company hopes this will put brakes on the spread of rumours in the country.

READ MORE Source : BS