How to control who can add you to WhatsApp group discussions

A few years ago, I made a business trip to Scotland with reporters from other parts of the world. During the trip, we used WhatsApp to keep in touch, which encouraged participants to stay in touch via WhatsApp, especially in the form of group discussions.

In recent years, I have been associated with probably two dozen different group discussions with people in this group and even more with others who have made a similar trip. Although I do not mind staying in touch, I have always wanted to keep in touch with me, that is to say, not constantly adding to new groups on the platform, especially for me. join the very active groups to arrive (hooray for having friends in the UK!).

On Wednesday, WhatsApp has launched a new feature that should alleviate my problem: a way to prevent people from adding you to groups without your consent.

Now, in the app's settings, you can choose to be added to a group by anyone, anyone, or just people in your contacts. You will find the setting in the menu Settings> Privacy> Groups.

Although this feature is perfect for my 3 o'clock problem, the idea here is to help prevent the spread of misinformation. Although WhatsApp is not used by everyone in the United States, it is exceptionally more popular in other countries. Prior to last year's Brazilian elections, activists used the app to add people to political groups without their consent, and then used these groups to spread misinformation. Think about all these "fake news" circulating around Facebook during the US elections, then imagine them by SMS. The same thing is happening now in India.

Disabling groups does not mean you can not join them. If you choose to allow "Person" to add you to group chats, you receive an alert with a link each time someone tries to do it, and you can approve or reject the message. invitation. If you do not click on the link within 72 hours, it will expire and you will never be added to the discussion. In my case, for example, I can join this group at a reasonable time, and then disable these notifications. In the case of an unwanted political group, you can simply refuse the invitation.

The feature is available now for some WhatsApp users and will be rolled out for everyone in the coming weeks.