WhatsApp ‘s latest initiative against fake news implies a new , stricter limit when forwarding messages to groups , in addition to the existing ones. WhatsApp seeks to reduce the spread of viral content, and knows that groups are a problem, since many people see the messages after only sending them once.
When forwarding messages on WhatsApp, a limit of 5 contacts or groups at a time is applied to make it difficult for it to reach many people. Although the content is encrypted, a counter is included for how many times the same chain message is sent, to display a “Forwarded” or “Forwarded many times” notice when applicable.
Well, now a message marked “Forwarded” can only be forwarded to one group at a time . The limit of 5 contacts remains, but only one of them can be a group conversation.
This change has reached version 2.22.7.2 of WhatsApp Beta that anyone can install, and it is already applied to these users. Therefore, it is almost certain that the new limit will be extended to the entire world shortly. The warning text in the app states:
“Forwarded messages can only be sent to a single group chat.”
There remains the option of sending the content (text, links, photos, videos, etc.) to several groups one by one. It is a more laborious process, which will discourage the sharing of information without verification in the application.
Actually, there is a very simple trick to forward a message on WhatsApp without showing it as “Forwarded”. It does not seem that the company is going to eliminate it, its objective is to reduce the amount of hoaxes and misinformation that circulate, without aspiring to eliminate them completely.
Since there is no official announcement, we do not know if this limit is going to be included among the measures of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for the invasion of Ukraine, or if it is an initiative against fake news unrelated to the war.
Of course, limiting the sending of previously forwarded messages on WhatsApp to a group will make the hoaxes spread less, and shows that the messaging platform is an important source of fake news.
