To tackle spread of fake news on its platform, instant messaging application WhatsApp on Thursday announced that users can forward messages to only five people at a time.
WhatsApp had said that it was testing a forwarding limit that will apply to all users. “In India – where people forward more messages, photos, and videos than any other country in the world – we’ll also test a lower limit of 5 chats at once and we’ll remove the quick forward button next to media messages,” the private messaging app said in a blog post.
The Facebook-owned application believes that these changes will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app.
The messages on the platform are said to be end-to-end encrypted. Recently on July 10, WhatsApp started indicating with a label, whether messages a user receives were forwarded from someone. This new update is in addition to the changes made to forwarding, in an attempt to manage fake news and spread of rumours.
