|
"We're imposing a limit of five messages all over the world as
of today," Victoria Grand, vice president for policy and
communications at WhatsApp, said at an event in the Indonesian
capital.
Previously, a WhatsApp user could forward a message to 20
individuals or groups. The five-recipient limit expands globally
a measure WhatsApp put into place in India in July after the
spread of rumors on social media led to killings and lynching
attempts.
WhatsApp, which has around 1.5 billion users, has been trying to
find ways to stop misuse of the app, following global concern
that the platform was being used to spread fake news,
manipulated photos, videos without context, and audio hoaxes,
with no way to monitor their origin or full reach.
The app's end-to-end encryption allows groups of hundreds of
users to exchange texts, photos and video beyond the purview of
independent fact checkers or even the platform itself.
WhatsApp will roll out an update to activate the new forward
limit, starting Monday, WhatsApp's head of communications Carl
Woog told Reuters.
Android users will receive the update first, followed by users
of Apple's iOS <AAPL.O>.
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin and Jessica Damiana; Editing by
Sayantani Ghosh and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
