WhatsApp publishes full-page ads in newspapers, lists 'easy tips' to fight fake news

As rumours on WhatsApp continue to spread unchecked, the messaging app owned by social media giant Facebook Inc on Tuesday published a full-page advertisement in Indian newspapers with tips to fight fake news. 

This comes a week after the US-based social media platform said the government, civil society and technology companies need to work together to fight fake news, misinformation, and hoaxes.

WhatsApp has shared several “easy tips” to find out if the information in the message is true or not. Among 10 tips, the first one is to understand if the message is a forward. The company has suggested looking for other sources of the same information, leaving groups to control what you read, questioning information that may upset you among other tips. 

Here is the full-page ad published by WhatsApp in the newspapers today: 

Rumours on WhatsApp have triggered a spate of incidents involving mob fury, the latest being lynching of five men on the suspicion of being child-lifters in Maharashtra's Rainpada village of Dhule district.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on July 2 had written to WhatsApp asking it to take immediate steps to prevent the circulation of false information and provocative content, saying it "cannot evade accountability and responsibility".

WhatsApp -- in its response to the notice sent by India's IT Ministry -- said it has the ability to prevent spam but since it cannot see the content of private messages, blocking can be done only based on user reports.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has demanded greater accountability from social media platforms, saying finding technological fixes to identify mass-circulation of messages on a particular issue, in a particular area cannot be "rocket science".

With India being its biggest market with over 200 million users, the Facebook Inc-owned messenger service asserted that it responds to "valid" law enforcement requests in investigating crimes.

The messaging platform has taking several steps to minimise the spread of fake news with a feature to identify forwards being rolled out this week. With the new feature, the users will be able to distinguish between forwards and typed messages.

(With PTI inputs)