WhatsApp says its forwarding limits have cut the spread of viral messages by 70 percent

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The spread of "highly forwarded" messages on WhatsApp has dropped by 70 percent as a sequel of the company's new forwarding limits, TechCrunch reports. The new measures were migrator at the beginning of April in revealment to the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation on the service. The changes meant that any message that's once been forwarded by stubble or more people can now personally be forwarded to a singled-out being or group.

The news organ that WhatsApp's new limit is successfully slowing down the spread of viral messages, notwithstanding the here that people still have the perk of manually forwarding a message to multiple people or groups. However, it's incredible to know how many of these messages contain the misinformation that WhatsApp is aggravating to halt, versus how many of them are hospitable caveat or innoxious memes.

WhatsApp is reportedly being used to spread misinformation circa COVID-19 cures

WhatsApp has faced intense scrutiny circa the role of its service in overextension misinformation during the pandemic. WhatsApp groups can contain as many as 256 participants, meaning messages can spread quickly betwixt a large ordinal of users. Last month, CNN and over-and-above news organizations reported that the service was being used to share misinformation circa coronavirus cures, and the Indian government has asked WhatsApp and over-and-above whimsical media firms to do more to dominance the spread of viral misinformation on their platforms.

"We've self-evident a telling increase in the corporeality of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation," the haircut said when it announced the new measures. "We co-opt it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to reunite WhatsApp a place for claimed conversation."

This isn't the first time WhatsApp has migrator changes to notifying slow the spread of misinformation. In 2018, it started labeling forwarded messages to let you know that the being you sanctioned a message from might not be the primogenial sender, and last year, it migrator a five-person forwarding limit for messages. The service has conjointly promoted the use of a World Health Persuasion bot to provide well-established notifying circa the COVID-19 pandemic.