WhatsApp to trace the origin of fake messages, set up servers in India

The instant messaging platform had earlier expressed inability in tracing the origin of messages citing privacy of consumers.

Fake News Controversy: With the government threatening action against WhatsApp over spread of fake news, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the American messaging platform, Chris Daniels, flew down to New Delhi to fix things.

Daniels, who took over as the boss of WhatsApp in May, on Tuesday told the government it would work out a technological solution to trace the origin of fake messages. The Facebook-owned firm, with more than 200 million active subscribers in India, also committed to complying with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules relating to local storage of financial data by having servers in India.

Daniels, a Facebook insider known for running internet.org at the California-based social media firm, has been firefighting with the Indian authorities over fake news soon after he was appointed as the WhatsApp boss.

Whatsapp Fake News Measures

Following an exchange of letters with the Department of Information Technology on the steps to block fake news, the WhatsApp team decided to meet the authorities in person to list out the corrective measures planned by the company. In the country for three to four days, the team would meet other ministers and bureaucrats as well. It could not be confirmed if a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled.

Within hours of his interaction with Daniels, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was off to Argentina for an ICT conference. From there, he will travel to Silicon Valley, which houses several prominent tech companies including WhatsApp. The minister is scheduled to meet top executives of many tech companies including Google during his...continue reading

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News Source: BS

Fake News Menace: You can share WhatsApp messages with only up to 5 people

The Facebook-owned instant messaging service is also reportedly testing more features to crack down on fake news on its platform.

Technology News: In response to the government's crackdown on the circulation of fake news, especially using its platform, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned instant messaging mobile app, has limit the number of people to whom you can forward a message to five.

The move follows several other steps with the same objective, such as issuing guidelines on how to identify forwarded messages and be a responsible user of the service.

The new feature would roll out as part of an app update from this week itself. The step came soon after the government asked WhatsApp and other social media platforms to take onus and help curb fake news circulation, which had been causing violence -- even lynching in some recent cases.

WhatsApp Forward Messages

WhatsApp has also reportedly been testing more features to crack down on fake news on its platform. Recently, the company had started testing a feature in its beta app for Android in which the app recognises authenticity of the link and marks unusual links as ‘suspicious’.

“Spammers may use some character combinations to trick you into tapping on links that appear to go to a legitimate website, but actually take you to a malicious site,” the company said in a statement.

The statement further added that these checks on links happen only on the user device because of end-to-end encryption which does not allow the company to see the content of messages. This also implies that WhatsApp will not be able to stop a malicious link from being forwarded, but can only label it as suspicious once it has…continue reading

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News Source : BS

US media dying to see me make mistake, follows me like never before: Donald Trump

His criticism came a day after the White House barred a CNN reporter from attending a presidential event.

International News → US President Donald Trump said the American media was "dying to see" him make mistake, as he continued his public criticism of the press a day after the White House barred a reporter from attending one of his events.

"Look at all those cameras. All those cameras, every stop I get all these cameras. This never happened to (former president Barack) Obama. This never happened to (George W.) Bush. This didn't happen," Trump told his supporters in Iowa yesterday, referring to the camera journalists present at the event.

"They just follow. They're dying to see us make a little bit of a mistake," he said.

His criticism came a day after the White House barred a CNN reporter from attending a presidential event, arguing that it expects "everyone to be respectful of the presidency."

The decision invited strong protests from journalists.

US, EU 'love each other': Trump

The White House Correspondents Association condemned the "misguided and inappropriate decision" to bar the reporter from attending a Rose Garden event after she shouted a question at Trump during an Oval Office media availability.

Today, Trump said the news media analyzes his every word. "They say, did he say that? Could it have been?" he said. The news media, he said, follows him "like never before".

Trump urged his supporters to spread the word about the good work he is doing. "The good news is: we can get the word out... And the word that I get out is what's happened to steel in this country over the last six months," he said, making a case for his steel and aluminum tariffs, that they are helping US workers.
"Even though we've been here for a little more than a year and a half, but we really hit it big over the last six months with what we've done," Trump said.

Trump's run-ins with the American media began soon after his presidency began in January last year. He has previously accused the media of spreading "fake news" and for closely scrutinising....continue reading

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News Source : BS

Priorities fake news issue over payments service plans: Govt to WhatsApp

WhatsApp has been told that the fake news issue is far more important than other plans in the current circumstances.

Latest News → IT Ministry is keen to see WhatsApp priorities curbing of fake news on its platform, against the backdrop of lynching incidents claiming many lives, over its plans to launch payments service, as per a senior government official.

The official told PTI that WhatsApp's payment service matter had figured in the meeting on Monday between IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney and top WhatsApp executives, including COO Matthew Idema.

The meeting saw the executives outlining the steps initiated by the Facebook-owned company recently to combat circulation of fake messages which incited lynching incidents in several parts of the country.

Whatsapp Fake News Issue

The ministry is of the view that WhatApp needs to resolve on priority basis the overhanging issue of misinformation and take more steps to control the rampant abuse of its platform for circulation of fake messages.

WhatsApp has been told that the fake news issue is far more important than other plans in the current circumstances, said the official, who was privy to the recent discussions.

WhatsApp did not respond to an emailed query.

The official noted that there are outstanding concerns over Whatsapp's proposed payment service plan, including how and where will the data of users be stored in the backdrop of RBI's instructions, mandating that data be stored in India.

The government wants greater clarity on how the storage issue is being handled by WhatsApp and these matters are under discussion, the official said, adding that detailed examination is required also given that....continue story

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News Source : BS

Here’s what history of advertising suggests about the future of fake news

History also suggests that the danger will probably recede over time as people grow accustomed to the ads, which will cease to work as effectively.

Technology News » Jordan Peele, the comedian turned horror-movie director, recently made a video meant to give American voters shivers of dread.

It showed President Barack Obama giving a speech he never gave, and uttering sentences that he didn’t actually say. The video demonstrated how easy it is to use current technology to create powerful and persuasive lies, now also known as fake news.

When this video magic is coupled with the ability of companies like Facebook to micro-target each of us and select the news we see, the implications for the future of our democracy seem dire. Fake news and micro-targeting can be combined to create a kind of advertising that’s like an evil version of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and we are being exposed to more of these pernicious morsels every year.

But two lessons from the history of advertising suggest that the fake news phenomenon is likely to change significantly in the years to come. Prospects are gloomy for the near future, as this kind of advertising extends beyond politics. History also suggests, though, that the danger will probably recede over time as people grow accustomed to the ads, which will cease to work as effectively.

First, in all likelihood, fake news will spread, despite efforts to rein it in. So far, most attention has focused on efforts to meddle in American elections. That is no small threat.

Yet, based on the historical record, far more effort goes into persuading Americans to buy things than to elect politicians.

By one estimate, political campaigns in the United States will spend an estimated $8 billion on advertising in 2018. But it is likely to be less than 1/25th of total advertising spending for the year, and new technologies are likely to be deployed more frequently on consumers than voters.

We are already seeing technology being used to shade the truth in advertising that targets consumers.

Read More on → Fake News

GPS chips and radioactive ink in new notes: Top 10 fake news in 2016

Along with India's national anthem being declared the 'Best National Anthem In The World'

Breaking News - From currency to salt–very little escaped the reach of fake news in 2016. Rumours spread from WhatsApp and other social media into the mainstream media. Institutions such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had to step in and tell us what was true. Even Facebook and Google, two of the world’s biggest Internet companies, sat up and took notice.

Such news can have widespread reach: India is one of the biggest markets for several social media and communication companies–it has 160 million of WhatsApp’s one billion-plus monthly active users, 148 million Facebook users, and over 22 million Twitter accounts.

Here are some of the most popular Indian fake news stories of 2016:

1. UNESCO declares PM Modi best Prime Minister

2. UNESCO declares Jana Gana Mana best national anthem

3. UNESCO declares new Rs 2,000 note best currency in the world

4. New notes have a GPS chip to detect black money

5. New notes have radioactive ink

6. WhatsApp profile pictures can be used by ISIS for terror activities

7. RBI declares the Rs 10 coin invalid

8. Jayalalithaa’s ‘secret daughter’ and heir lives in the US

9. Salt shortage in India

10. “Nehru Govt has stood like a Banyan Tree”: Mark Tully

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