‘Frequently forwarded’ warning likely on WA

■ Whatsapp beta is testing the feature to fight fake news

In the fight against fake news, India has often criticised Whatsapp (WA) as the messenger has been often used to forward such fake message to unsuspecting users.

While other platforms have also been used, the government has mainly focused its attention on WhatsApp. Thus, the messenger has been forced to experiment with more tools to help fight the spread of fake news.

In a new beta, the messenger labels messages you send as “frequently forwarded” if they’ve been shared five or more times.

The move, which builds upon the feature that restricted forwarding a message to five accounts at a time, will also allow you to even see the exact forwarding count by diving into the Message Info section. However, it’ll be limited to messages that you send rather than ones you receive.

While it’s not certain if or when this will be rolled out to the standard WhatsApp releases, its presence in the beta program suggests it’s only a matter of time.

In India, critics have blamed fake news on WhatsApp for spurring lynchings and other violence, and Facebook has gone so far as to run newspaper ads and hire dedicated staff to keep a lid on misinformation.

If WhatsApp, which constantly tests new features in its beta versions, can call out questionable messages through methods like this, it might not need to resort to drastic measures such as ending endto-end encryption.