Facebook-owned WhatsApp has announced that it has selected 20 research teams worldwide, including experts from India and those of Indian origin, who will work on how misinformation is spread and what further steps the mobile messaging platform can take to curb fake news.
BEWARE! Fake Whatsapp forwards can be harmful to people's lives
shakuntala banaji from London School of Economics and Political Science (lse), anushi agrawal and nihal passanha from bengaluru based media and art collective maraa and ramnath bhat from lse have been selected for the paper titled "whatsapp vigilantes? whatsapp messages and mob violence in india ".
Recipients are from countries including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore, Spain, UK and us. WhatsApp said it's hosting them in California this week so they can hear from product managers about how it's building its product.
"Given the nature of private messaging — where 90 percent of messages sent are between two people and group sizes are strictly limited — our focus remains on educating and empowering users and proactively addressing abuse," the company said.
