KalingaTV News Network
New Delhi: WhatsApp today said its users in India will not be allowed to forward more than five chats at once, after Indian authorities sought curbs on spread of rumours that have led to violent incidents.
As part of its efforts to reduce circulation of fake messages on the platform that have even incited mob lynching incidents, the company said that it will remove the quick forward button that appears next to media messages.
In a blogpost, WhatsApp noted that its users in India “forward more messages, photos, and videos, than any other country in the world”. The Facebook-owned company has over one billion users globally, of which over 200 million are in India.
WhatsApp last week published advertisements in key Indian newspapers to tackle the spread of misinformation, its first such effort to combat a flurry of fake messages.
So far this year, false messages about child abductors on WhatsApp have triggered mass beatings of more than a dozen people in India and some of whom have died.
Ms Kalinga