WhatsApp To Add Fact-Checking Service Ahead Of Indian Elections

Jyotis - Apr 03, 2019

Also, it will help control the spread of misleading information in the three following forms: images, videos, and text.

While the Indian elections are coming near, WhatsApp has just launched a fact-checking service called Checkpoint Tipline. According to the Reuter report, messages forwarded by users will be assessed and marked by a team of an Indian startup Proto based on four grades including “false”, “disputed”, “true”, and “misleading.”

The new fact-checking service will allegedly help to prevent fake news.

Proto plans to use these messages to build a database that helps the company to research and comprehend how misinformation is spreading. The Indian elections will begin on April 11th, and the final results will be published on May 23rd.

In recent days, the messaging service has been criticized for letting the misleading and false information spread in the nation. More importantly, they are reasons for a lot of deaths in India. In addition, WhatsApp was responsible for some viral information spread in the election 2108 in Brazil.

On April 02, the fact-checking service was first introduced to WhatsApp users with some certain issues. It took a message two hours to get the classification since the outlet reported it.

The Checkpoint Tipline reportedly supports 5 various languages from Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam, and English. Also, it will help control the spread of misleading information in the three following forms: images, videos, and text. WhatsApp has just tested a feature that enables users to verify their own authenticity by reversing image search.

In addition to Proto, WhatsApp has collaborated with Meedan and Dig Deep Media, both of these organizations have worked in similar projects from many other countries. Of which, the Check platform of Meedan was built to struggle against the spread of misinformation in French and Mexican elections. At present, it is integrated into the Business API offered by WhatsApp.

As per the Checkpoint Tipline, the fact-checking service is among a lot of new changes, which WhatsApp has applied to its own service to remove or at least, limit the misinformation. Moreover, users can now forward a message with the maximum 5 times and all of the forwarded messages are labelled.