WhatsApp COVID-19?
During this ongoing pandemic, WhatsApp has become my lifeline to my family. As a Malaysian living in America, my entire extended family resides overseas. Daily, I wake up to an onslaught of messages from well-meaning, frightened family members via WhatsApp. Their collective anxiety manifesting itself through forwarded news headlines from sources unheard-of. While some of the shared stories may be useful, such as “Proper Ways to Avoid Contact!”, often the news articles cast a perverse and sensationalist pitch, leaving readers filled with dread. These articles range from the lying on how to remain healthy (“Drinking Hot Water Keeps you Safe from Coronavirus”), to propaganda-like messages, such as how “too much freedom and human rights in the US” led to its inability to stop the spread. While disturbing in content, more agonizing is that the vast majority of articles forwarded are factually inaccurate and easily debunked. However, when pointing this out to my family, their actions change little. In this virtually curated newsstand, all news is welcome, shareable, real and valid. My familial situation is hardly unique, WhatsApp’s perpetuation of fake news has infiltrated many family-based chats around the world.
Unsurprisingly, this is not WhatsApp’s first time in the fake news hotseat. In recent years, WhatsApp-originated fake news have led to disastrous and sinister results. Recently, WhatsApp-generated rumors have led to mob-killings in India [1] and Mexico [2]. Sadly, in a development surprising no one, during the COVID-19 pandemic, WhatsApp has emerged as a key creator and distributor of viral fake news [3]. Headlines mix accuracy with fiction, leaving readers terrified and misinformed. As of this writing, there are at least 19 debunked WhatsApp-shared COVID-19 myths on AFP Fact Check [4]. Articles forwarded can be traced from the Philippines to Nigeria, spreading worldwide via WhatsApp. In the times of a pandemic — what responsibilities do companies hold to their users to keep them safe? The spread of fake news can lead to deadly results.
The complexity of attempting to curtail the spread of fake news on WhatsApp lies within the app’s infrastructure. WhatsApp operates very differently from its parent company Facebook. Instead of selling a community, the draw of WhatsApp is privacy. To ensure privacy, WhatsApp encryptes messages end-to-end, meaning only the senders and recipients can view the communication and not the platform itself. For that reason, WhatsApp cannot algorithmically track the genesis of viral message and their spread, and therefore cannot thwart and reduce their spread. However, this does not mean WhatsApp has not attempted to stop the spread of unverifiable information, albeit to meddling results. In 2019, WhatsApp began labeling forwarded messages as “forwarded” which WhatsApp claims has curbed the spread of forwarded messages by 25%. Furthermore, WhatsApp created group limits at 256 members, and limited the number of group chats a message can be forwarded to 5. [5] This limit has proven to be somewhat successful by delaying the propagation but has failed to prevent a message from reaching an entire network quickly. [6] To truly reduce viral fake news on its platform, WhatsApp needs to take the aggressive action of removing the forwarding shortcut all together. While it negatively impacts user experience, it is necessary to keep its users safe.
Some other ideas have been floated on how Whatsapp can systematically fight the spread of misleading information without breaking encryption. While WhatsApp cannot read encrypted messages, these same scientists theorize that WhatsApp may be able to track the genesis of rouge messages and flag them as suspicious as they float through the complex systems of the interwebs. Additionally, the data and computer scientists proposed tracing, virtually quarantining and temporarily restricting the ability for users suspected of spreading false information. [6] However, this would surely compromise user’s belief in WhatsApp’s privacy claims. For that, it is unlikely for WhatsApp to take such an action.
There is no easy solution to the problem. Until a solution is found, I will keep on with encouraging my family to fact check their forwarded articles. I dislike telling my family members that their articles are riddled with inaccuracy. It’s especially difficult coming from a culture which puts great respect on the elderly — I fear I come across as disrespectful. However, I’d rather have my family be informed with accurate information than not; and I’d rather have them annoyed with me than dead.
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986
