Combating Falsehood
Following the string of lynchings across India, based on misinformation spread via WhatsApp, the Indian government has asked the Facebook-owned messaging service to combat fake news on its platform. RS Prasad – Union Minister for Law and Justice, and Electronics and Information Technology – called upon WhatsApp to focus on security-related aspects of people of India, citing India being its biggest market-base of over 200 million users.
WhatsApp responded, saying it wanted to work with the government and combat the spread of falsehood masquerading as news. One major initiative taken up so far has been in the form of an ad campaign in national newspapers in various languages, which listed out the number of steps people can take to combat rumors and misinformation.
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