‘WhatsApp’s solutions to tackle fake news inadequate’

New Delhi: Narrating the impact of fake news and propaganda disseminated through WhatsApp, election consultant Shivam Shankar Singh in his new book, says the solutions proposed by the platform to prevent rumour mongering seem inadequate. In “How To Win An Indian Election”, Singh who managed BJP’s assembly poll campaigns in Manipur and Tripura says messages containing the words “if true” and “forwarded as received” do little to make the recipients question their authenticity.

“WhatsApp is running an educational campaign against fake news on newspaper and radio, and not on its own messaging platform through which lies actually spread,” he says.

“Such campaigns are unlikely to reach the audience that is the most vulnerable to WhatsApp forwards,” says Singh who entered the field of political consultancy with Prashant Kishor’s team at the Indian Political Action Committee.

He also says restricting the number of groups that a person can forward a message to is also unlikely to be effective because most end recipients don’t have too many accounts to forward the messages to. (IANS)

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