The coming of social media has brought with it a lot of gains to its many users around the world. From operating businesses to just having a good time reaching out to family and friends, social media has served as a way of enriching human interaction and promoting starters in the field of entrepreneurship.
However, as good as it is, social media has also brought with it too many problems that have caused a lot of controversy around the world. One of these problems is fake news.
Fake News
Fake news has taken over social media. People now deliberately go online to propagate falsehood. They will, for instance, sit in the comfort of their homes and compose messages that they clearly know is false then. They will then send these messages out to unsuspecting persons asking them to forward the information to other people.
At the end of the day, these fake messages will spread very far and wide, causing problems in the society.
- A Good Example
One sound example of the damage that can be caused by fake news will be found in the period when the Ebola disease ravaged through Nigeria and caused a lot of people to panic. People became very cautious about touching others and businesses became less operative. Soon, a message was spread all round social media, asking people to bathe with warm water mixed with salt because it will prevent Ebola disease from penetrating their bodies.
READ ALSO: Instagram Launches IGTV App Where Users Can Upload 1-Hour Long Videos: All You Need To Know
This message spread round very quickly that many people actually believed it. They proceeded to bathe with salt water, urging family and friends to do the same. Of course the news was fake and some of the people who bathed with the salt water, developed serious complications afterwards.
There are many other instances of these fake news and they are rampant all over Facebook and WhatsApp.
WhatsApp, A Home of Fake News
WhatsApp has come to be known as one of the places where fake news spreads the most. On WhastsApp, fake news spreads with the speed of a fire set to dry grass. On a daily basis fake messages and news articles are sent around WhatsApp with people encouraging others to share and pass around.
This is a very dangerous trend which can go a very long way to cause very serious problems in the society especially if people are too lazy to verify the information they are consuming. This is why it has become imperative to do something about curbing the trend of fake news making the rounds.
WhatsApp Introduces New Feature To Curb Fake News
WhatsApp, which of course, happens to be one of the most used instant messaging systems at the moment, has decided to make a move to curb the spread of fake news. The tech giant recently announced the launch of a new feature globally that will make sure to highlight when a message has been forwarded and not composed by the sender.
You need to understand that fake news spread fast when people just forward messages on WhatsApp which they have received without confirming the authenticity. The people they forward the messages to also forward them to others and thus the fake information continue to spread. So this new feature is out to expose people who just forward messages without verifying them and possibly end the trend of false news.
The introduction of this new feature was made on Tuesday through the official blog of WhatsApp following the many calls from various parts of the world, including India, to tackle the spread of fake news which is eating deep into social media.
In the statement, WhatsApp which is owned by another tech giant, Facebook, said, “Starting today, WhatsApp will indicate which messages you receive, have been forwarded to you.
“This extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow
“It also helps you determine if your friend or relative wrote the message they sent or if it originally came from someone else.
“To see this new forwarded label, you need to have the latest supported version of WhatsApp on your phone.”
It will be recalled that not long ago, WhatsApp while replying a notice by the Indian government to employ serious and immediate tactics in preventing misuse of its platform, revealed that it was testing a new label that highlights when a message has been forwarded by users of the messaging platform.
WhatsApp had revealed that “This could serve as an important signal for recipients to think twice before forwarding messages.
“Because it lets a user know if content they received was written by the person they know or a potential rumour from someone else.”
- Think Twice Before You Forward Messages
The instant messaging platform also added: “WhatsApp cares deeply about your safety.
“We encourage you to think before sharing messages that were forwarded. As a reminder, you can report spam or block a contact in one tap and can always reach out to WhatsApp directly for help.”
