[ad_1]
NEW DELHI – WhatsApp offers research grants to social scientists to help fight the spread of "misinformation" across the multiplatform messaging service. The move comes as a result of a series of lynchings in India from rumors of fake news being broadcast on the free email platform.
The service, which belongs to Facebook, offers up to $ 50,000 for proposals that "provide a better understanding of the impact of technology on contemporary society in this problematic space", including the electoral content, digital literacy and the detection of problematic behaviors. WhatsApp has been attacked in recent days in India – its biggest market – after a series of brutal murders that have left more than a dozen dead in more than five states – including eight dead just last week. . In most cases, innocent bystanders have been beaten to death by crowds fed by rumors of kidnappers or WhatsApp's organ harvesting rings. On Sunday, a crowd in the state of Maharashtra threw out five people belonging to a nomadic tribe, beating victims to death and appealing to the police who were trying to intervene
. in India, where more than 200 million users – including many on smartphone for the first time – send billions of messages daily on WhatsApp.
The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technologies issued a stern warning on Tuesday. Escape the responsibility and responsibility "for the messages that lead to the spread of violence and called on the company to" take immediate action to end this threat. "
" The abuse of [platforms] as WhatsApp for repeated circulation of such provocative content is it's also a matter of deep concern, "said the ministry." . . Deep disapproval of these developments has been passed on to the senior management of the WhatsApp and they have been advised that the necessary corrective actions should be taken to prevent the proliferation of these false and sometimes motivated / sensational messages. "
WhatsApp, in an answer He stated that he was" horrified by these terrible acts of violence "and that" false news, misinformation and spreading hoaxes are the issues best handled collectively: by government, civil society, and technology companies working together. "
The company also said that messages on its platform can become" highly viral "when users share them, and that they are also encrypted. makes it more difficult to monitor hate or illegal speech than other social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook – where messages are put on websites and can be widely accessed online, depending on settings user privacy – WhatsApp works as traditio WhatsApp users, however, can create newsgroups up to 3 9 to 256 people, and these users can broadcast a message to other groups to which they belong, quickly boosting the effectiveness of the false news.
WhatsApp said earlier this week that he had added a new feature that allows administrators of WhatsApp groups to control who can post. The company plans to launch a program of engagement with law enforcement officials in India and will increase its reach in the coming months ahead of the country's general elections next year, said officials.
WhatsApp has already entered into partnerships with press organizations in Brazil and Mexico – with subsidies provided by Facebook – to counter and verify the news.
The Indian government has considered ways to control the rise of false news without much success. Police services across the country to fight them themselves by launching WhatsApp channels.
Some low tech measures were also taken: In the state of Tripura, the authorities hired advertisers who move from village to village with loudspeakers. to warn villagers not to believe false messages. Three people were killed last week, including a "buster rumor". The authorities stopped the Internet service for 48 hours to help suppress the violence.
Indian authorities ordered more than 70 stops last year against six in 2014 Shutdowns Internet Watch Portal. There have been 65 closures so far this year.
Critics and officials said that WhatsApp should do more to combat the spread of false news. Nikhil Pahwa, a technology expert, warned in an article on his website, MediaNama, that India's "massive" fake news story was "getting worse".
Pahwa argues that the company should allow users of the public, with public messages marked with a unique identifier for the creator, which could make inflammatory messages easier to trace.
Read more
Why WhatsApp can be a challenge to democracy in India
authorities struggle to fight false news
The "false news" may soon be illegal in Malaysia.
Today's cover of postal correspondents from around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
[ad_2]
Source link
