To fight the misinformation and the rumors, the WhatsApp is forcing the users to send text forwards to only five recipients. The social media messaging application is used by millions of active users and is quite useful in communicating with others. But the app is being helpful in spreading the rumors, and that’s why, the company has decided to limit the text forwards to only five people, which will help the company to reduce the number of fake news and rumors circulating on the platform.
Victoria Grand, vice president for policy and communications, announced that the update had been rolled out to restrict the users worldwide. Previously, the app allowed users to forward a text message up to 20 people or groups at once. But after fake reported news and rumor circulations in India, which resulted in the riots and deaths of people forced the company to roll out the feature in India. Now, the feature is now released globally and the people won’t be able to send the text message to more than five people in one try. Currently, WhatsApp has more than 1.2 Billion active users communicating with each other.
With the massive number of active users, the company is worried about the misuse of the app by anti-social elements in every part of the world. A single message could start a riot as WhatsApp is effective in communicating a message to the deepest parts. As WhatsApp implemented the End-to-End encryption to the messages, there is no way for the company to monitor the messages that were sent over the network. That’s why the desperate measures like limiting the text message forwards to only five people in one try are rolled over globally.