{"id":140111,"date":"2019-05-29T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T17:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=140111"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:52:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:52:46","slug":"whatsapp-tip-line-vs-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/whatsapp-tip-line-vs-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"New WhatsApp feature fights fake news"},"content":{"rendered":"

With so many Softonic readers being avid WhatsApp<\/strong> users, we always try to keep you up to date on what is going on with the Facebook<\/strong>-owned app. Unfortunately, this has meant reporting extensively on the spread of fake news across the network <\/strong>and WhatsApp\u2019s attempts to fight it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve covered everything from limits to message forwarding<\/a> to a tip line WhatsApp set up<\/a> to learn more about how false information spreads. Today, we have some very encouraging news to report on the response to the tip line mentioned above.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp tip line<\/h2>\n
\"Whatsapp
The response has been strong to WhatsApp’s new fake news tip line.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The WhatsApp Checkpoint tip line<\/strong> was set up in the run-up to the recent Indian elections. More than 600 million people voted<\/a> in the biggest democratic exercise on the planet – a prime target for people trying to push false political narratives. This has been done before in countries like Brazil.<\/p>\n

Checkpoint allows WhatsApp users to request verification on news stories they receive via WhatsApp. WhatsApp has now revealed that in just two months about 75,000 people have sent verification requests<\/strong> to Checkpoint. However, it isn\u2019t able to actually provide verification to all users. Instead, Checkpoint is a research project, designed to help the ubiquitous messaging app learn more about how people interact with fake news.<\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \"WhatsApp\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n WhatsApp Messenger<\/span>\r\n Download free \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path>8<\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Working with an Indian media start-up company called PROTO, Checkpoint will now analyze the data. PROTO also plans to submit all the findings to the International Center for Journalists <\/a>in a bid to help other organizations learn from how the project was designed and run.<\/p>\n

Not everybody who asked for verification received it, but WhatsApp is now sitting on a huge cache of useful data. This data could help it fight fake news<\/strong> and all its awful consequences.<\/p>\n

In an article with\u00a0Economic Times<\/a>, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, \u201c The response on the tip line has been tremendous and has received over 75,000 claims since the launch, in five languages \u2014 Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, and English.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the large scale of the data that could make a difference, with one of the co-founders of PROTO saying, \u201cAs more data flows in, we continue to identify the issues, languages, regions that are most susceptible to or affected by this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fake
Fake news has been a big problem for WhatsApp for quite some time now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What comes next?<\/h2>\n

WhatsApp\u2019s fake news problem is far from over. If anything, the Checkpoint numbers show just how big the problem actually is. The messaging app is moving in the right direction. However, it has already built up a huge database of information<\/strong> relating to the types of false stories shared. This should help it prevent the spread in the future.<\/p>\n

The other good news to take from this is the public response. A lot of people have felt suspicious enough to pass stories they\u2019ve received on to a verification service, which is a very good sign. If WhatsApp can give people the tools to fight fake news themselves, the people will use them.<\/p>\n

\r\n

More about fake news<\/p>\r\n

\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

This Chrome extension wants to help you trust the news again \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

10 Tricks for spotting fake news \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Deepfake videos can make anyone say or do anything \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Microsoft Edge mobile browser will soon tell you if you are looking at fake news \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 75,000 WhatsApp users sent authentication requests to the new WhatsApp tip line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":140127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[1082,2333,1805,1083,1043],"usertag":[790],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-140111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-android","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwhatsapp","tag-fake-news","tag-ios","tag-whatsapp","usertag-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325964,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140111\/revisions\/325964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140111"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=140111"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=140111"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=140111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}