WhatsApp Works With NASSCOM Foundation To Fight Fake News

On Monday, WhatsApp announced that it has partnered with NASSCOM foundation, short for National Association of Software and Services Companies, to provide digital literacy training in the battle against misinformation.

According to WhatsApp, this partnership aims to offer training to roughly 100,000 Indian citizens to raise their awareness of misinformation. Citizens will learn how to detect false information as well as receiving tips and tricks on how to protect themselves on WhatsApp.

The company stated that through the co-created curriculum, people are encouraged to be more aware of rumors.  The training consists of real-world tools and anecdotes for forwarding verification. Users will learn what to do when they encounter false information like reporting inappropriate content to law enforcement and fact checkers. The curriculum will be available in several regional languages.

The first training will take place on March 27 in Delhi. After that, training workshops for rural and urban area’s representatives and roadshows to colleges will be carried out. NASSCOM Foundation said it will also launch a campaign called “Each One Teach Three” for volunteers to share their knowledge with three other people for a networking effect.

On its Twitter account, NASSCOM foundation is calling for people to register and volunteer for the project.

The takeaways from these workshops will then be posted by the volunteers on their social media accounts so that these safety messages can reach more people.

NASSCOM CEO, Ashok Pamidi, said: