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More than 20 people have been mbadacred by maddening crowds over the last two months across India after being accused of kidnapping children and other crimes in viral messages wildly broadcast on WhatsApp.
Thursday night, the government of India, struggling to find an answer, threatened to sue WhatsApp in court, claiming that the "way" of spreading malicious rumors "can not escape responsibility and the responsibility".
"If (WhatsApp) remain dumb spectators, they are likely to be treated as accomplices and then be prosecuted," said the Ministry of Information Technology .
The firm owned by Facebook responded Friday with an announcement that it will test limiting the ability to forward messages and capping at five the number of contacts or groups to which messages can be forwarded.
In addition, he said that he will delete the "fast forward button" next to the media messages, which makes sending on messages more cumbersome.
"We believe that these changes, which we will continue to evaluate, will help maintain WhatsApp as it was designed: a private messaging application," it said in a statement.
Worldwide, the company will limit the number of fronts to 20 other groups, a spokesman said.
Under pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the firm had already announced new features to help users identify the messages that were transmitted.
He bought full-page ads in Indian newspapers with tips on how to detect misinformation.
The department also used WhatsApp to allow "traceability" of messages when an official request is made.
But Friday's platform said its messages would remain "end-to-end encrypted".
– Children's chocolates – The Lynchings are not new to India, but the spread of smartphones – there are more than a billion handsets, and the data is cheap – even the most remote corners have allowed to share the rumors.
In India, people are advancing on WhatsApp more messages, photos and videos than any other country in the world, says the company.
The latest incident last Friday saw a 27-year-old software engineer beaten to death by a crowd of more than 2,000 people in the state of Karnataka, south, after he and his friends offered chocolates to local children.
Fatal attacks were also perpetrated against Muslims by "cow protection" groups who drive on highways and inspect livestock trucks. Cows are sacred to the majority Hindu community.
Indian authorities launched awareness campaigns and patrols and imposed blackouts in some areas, but the impact was limited.
An official "rumor drinker" was himself beaten to death in the northeast in June.
In China, WhatsApp is subject to major disruptions, prompting people to use the local WeChat. But elsewhere in Asia and beyond, WhatsApp and other tech companies have been criticized for spreading "fake news".
Major media organizations, often in partnership with leading technology and social media companies, have stepped up fact-checking and other measures to support credible journalism.
Internet companies, after an initial reluctance to define themselves as "media", stepped up their efforts to identify false news and to "tell" stories from "reliable" news sources.
In Pakistan, WhatsApp this week launched a one – week ad campaign offering tips for spotting false news before the July 25 election.
In India, the company is in talks with the government on how to fight spam before the next elections and present a fake information verification model similar to that recently used in Mexico, reported Friday the Economic Times.
This week the Supreme Court asked the government to adopt new legislation and the commentator and former editor of the magazine, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, told AFP that the mere criticism of WhatsApp was insufficient.
"You can shoot the messenger, but the main responsibility lies with the government to take action against the perpetrators," he told AFP.
stu-ruc / aph
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