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WhatsApp limits all its members to transmit a single message up to five times in order to combat the spread of false information on the platform.
The Facebook-owned company had already introduced the policy in India six months ago.
This decision follows a number of lynchings of the crowd, which have been attributed to false reports disseminated via the service.
Until now, users from other countries could transmit messages up to 20 times.
The update of the rules of the application was announced at an event in Jakarta, Indonesia. The country holds its general elections in April.
The firm informed the BBC that she had made her decision after "carefully" evaluating the results of her six-month test in the country.
"The transmission limit has dramatically reduced the number of messages sent around the world," added a spokeswoman.
"[This] will help keep WhatsApp focused on private messaging with close contacts. We will continue to listen to user feedback about their experience and, over time, look for new ways to process viral content. "
Scrambled messages
Up to 256 users can be registered in a WhatsApp group.
Thus, theoretically, a single user can now only transmit a message to 1,280 other people instead of 5,120 people previously.
However, nothing can prevent the recipients of the recipient from transmitting the message five times at most.
The restriction comes at a time when other WhatsApp and Facebook services are under scrutiny for their role in spreading propaganda and other online lies.
Last week, Facebook announced the removal of 500 pages and accounts suspected of peddling false information in Central Europe, Ukraine and other countries of Eastern Europe.
It has also recently announced that it has used a UK fact-checking service to report content on its main platform.
However, through the use of end-to-end encryption by WhatsApp, its messages can only be read by their senders and recipients, which limits the ability of the company to detect false reports.
But at the end of last year, the Indian press reported that the government was considering amending the law to force Facebook to put pressure on WhatsApp for "illegal" content. This would call into question its use of encryption technology.
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