WhatsApp's New Fact-Checking Service
The country of India is adding a new addition to WhatsApp, a new fact-checking algorithm. According to Reuters, users of the popular messaging app can forward any messages to the new "Checkpoint Tipline," where a WhatsApp team, specifically designated for this, will assess each message and determine if they fit in any of these four categories: true, false, misleading, or disputed. The prupose of creating this new update was to determine any misinformation, particularly anything related to the elctions that are set to start the 11th in India.
The messaging service has come under much scrutiny lately, particularly in India and Brazil. WhatsApp has received claims of spreading false and misleading info through India concerning politics, criminal activity, and possible illegal business transactions. The application was also accused of being used to spread false information regarding last year's Brazilian Election.
WhatsApp is partnering with Proto, a local Indian internet provider, to help create the new algorithm. The founders of Proto, Ritvvij Parrikh and Nasr ul Hadi, stated that the goal of the new additon to the application is to "“study the misinformation phenomenon at scale,” and that “As more data flows in, we will be able to identify the most susceptible or affected issues, locations, languages, regions, and more.”
According to The Verge, "A total of five languages will be supported by Checkpoint Tipline — English, Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam — and the service will support misinformation spread in the form of text, videos, and images. Separately, WhatsApp also recently tested adding the ability for users to reverse image search images in an apparent attempt to allow users to verify their authenticity."
The company is also working with two companies other than Proto to help battle misinformation, Dig Deep Media and Meedan. Meedan, in particular, is well-known for their check platform, which was used to combat the spread of false information in France and Mexico.
According to The Verge, "The Checkpoint Tipline is just one of a range of changes WhatsApp has made to its service to combat the spread of misinformation. The service has also limited the number of times a message can be forwarded to five, and now also applies a label to any forward messages."
The encrypted nature of WhatsApp makes it a particularly difficult platform to regulate however, since not even the organization itself can view the messages that are being sent. Facebook recently announced that it has removed 549 Facebook accounts and 138 Pages for coordinated inauthentic behavior in India, but WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption means tracking down similar behavior on the messaging service is much harder.
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