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

---

News Source : BS

Fate of the nation must not be allowed to hang by the horn of a cow

The lynchings then are explicitly the front line of forces seeking to retain power in 2019 - a campaign where the political is brutally intended to ride on a fake spiritual.

Latest News : There is the Brahminical belief that the surest way to cross the perilous Vaitarni river on the way to heaven is to hang by the tail of a cow.

Well, what do you know, this seems equally true of crossing the majority mark in the Lok Sabha.

Consider the statement by an RSS leader that cow-related lynching will stop only if people ceased to consume beef. Clearly, Indresh Kumar seems privy to things on the ground that we merely speculate about.

An even more explicit admonition has come from Vinay Katiyar: Muslims ought not to touch cows. What could be a more no-nonsense enunciation of the right-wing political bottom line.

Cow Lynching

Had the cow been wholly a subject of faith and not of politics, Kiren Rijiju, a cabinet minister at the Centre, could hardly be spared by the lynch mobs, having declared that he eats beef and will continue to do so. Or Manohar Parrikar, chief minister of Goa, for saying beef will be available in the state. Nor would the fortunes of beef-eating Meghalaya have remained unaffected had the Bharatiya Janata Party’s political stakes there not been so high.

The lynchings then are explicitly the front line of forces seeking to retain power in 2019 – a campaign where the political is brutally intended to ride on a fake spiritual.

You may shout hoarse that this cynical praxis not only conceals the failure of the Narendra Modi government on multiple fronts, but bids fair to cause a grievous long-festering wound to the body politic. For whom it is fatally important to hold on to the reins of state power – a well-defined and well-understood political-ideological legacy informing that imperative – anything is par for the course. Any new fake morality may be constructed to...continue reading

---

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

---

News Source : BS