Survey: Rural Indians don’t trust messages on WhatsApp blindly

WhatsApp users in rural India do not blindly trust messages they receive on the messaging service, according to a limited survey across 14 states, a finding that must provide some cheer to law enforcement officials and policymakers trying to combat fake news and rumours, and to the messaging service itself.

Only 8% of the respondents marked 10 as their trust score on a scale of 1-10, where 1 stands for complete distrust and 10 for complete trust, in information received on WhatsApp, found a survey conducted by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a New Delhi-based nonprofit organisation that seeks to find solutions to bridge the digital divide.

To be sure, the Digital Empowerment Foundation survey titled “What’s up Rural India?” recorded responses from only 1018 rural users in 14 states including districts like Bettiah in Bihar, Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, Chamba, Narendra Nagar and Pratapnagar in Uttarakhand, Betul and Guna in Madhya Pradesh, Musiri in Tamil Nadu, Memboobnagar, Vikarabad and Warangal in Telangana and Alwar and Barmer in Rajasthan among others, and only a larger survey can authoritatively weigh in on the trust people have in the messaging service.

Since May, at least 30 people have been lynched by mobs with rumours on the messaging platform being responsible for some of the incidents. Fake videos and rumours of child-lifting circulated via WhatsApp have triggered

NEW DELHI:

Never No Yes lynchings in at least eight states. The Indian government wrote to WhatsApp about the incidents and the platform, owned by Facebook Inc made some changes, including a clear

labelling of forwarded messages as well as limiting the number of forwards to tackle the spread of rumours and Fake News.

WhatsApp has over 200 million