After lynching spree in India, WhatsApp offers tips to spot fake news

Agencies
July 10, 2018

New Delhi, Jul 10: WhatsApp took out full-page advertisements in Indian newspapers on Tuesday offering "easy tips" to identify fact from fiction after a slew of recent murders spurred by hoaxes shared on its platform.

The Facebook-owned messaging service has been under immense pressure to curb the spread of misinformation in India after the lynching of more than 20 people accused of child abduction in the last two months.

Most recently a mob surrounded and killed five men in Maharashtra state denounced as child kidnappers, a pernicious rumour blamed for similar murders in at least 11 Indian states.

WhatsApp said it was "horrified" by the violence and promised swift action but Indian authorities have accused the social media giant of acting irresponsibly in its largest market.

The slick adverts in leading English and Hindi language newspapers, entitled "together we can fight false information", listed 10 tips for users seeking to sort truth from rumour.

"Do not pay attention to the number of times you receive the message. Just because a message is shared many times, does not make it true," offer one of the tidbits of advice.

It also suggested users cross-check information against reputable news sources and not share the messages further if they doubt their authenticity.

WhatsApp will soon launch a new feature on its platform in India that will clearly identify whether a message has been forwarded or written by the user.

Indian officials said the company could not "evade accountability and responsibility".

WhatsApp has said it can block spam but cannot read the content of messages for privacy reasons, including potentially problematic content spreading in user chats.

Rumours on WhatsApp about child kidnappers saw eight men killed in eastern Indian last year but the same information has since resurfaced.

Spam messages warning parents about child kidnapping gangs have sprung up in multiple regional languages in India in recent months, sometimes accompanied by gruesome videos of child abuse.

Police in several states have denied the existence of such criminal groups.

India is WhatsApp's largest market, with an estimated 200 million users sending a billion encrypted messages each day.

Comments

Suresh
 - 
Tuesday, 10 Jul 2018

People + GOvt + Whatsapp initiative must for controling fake news

Farooq
 - 
Tuesday, 10 Jul 2018

How whatsapp and govt can control such fake news..! continously monitoring personal data+messages..? 

Kumar
 - 
Tuesday, 10 Jul 2018

If people dont want to share such things, they wouldnt do before also. People want to make controversies and issues. So they are sharing. Legal action should take

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News Network
May 2,2020

Bengaluru, May 2: JDS leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy accused the Mandya district administration of the surge in COVID-19 cases in the district and not quarantining 7,000 labourers who arrived here from Mumbai.

"As we know that 16,000 labourers from Mandya were working in Mumbai, out of which 7,000 people have arrived in the district. However, none of them was quarantined properly which is a violation of COVID-19 lockdown," Kumaraswamy told reporters here on Friday.

He claimed the district administration has shown "gross negligence" in their duty in following the procedure of COVID-19 as "one COVID-19 patient's dead body which was brought here from Mumbai has led to more cases in the district and those who accompanied the body have also tested positive for the virus."

Kumaraswamy appealed to the state government to strictly maintain lockdown norms and do not allow any relaxations in view of the rise in COVID-19 cases, stating that "any kind of relaxation could lead to a huge disaster."

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News Network
April 1,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 1: As many as 12 of the 40 identified people from Karnataka, who attended Tablighi congregation in Nizamuddin, Delhi, have tested negative for COVID-19, state Health Minister B Sriramulu said in a tweet on Wednesday.

It is also learnt that 62 foreigners from Indonesia and Malaysia, who attended the congregation, have visited the State and 12 of them have been quarantined, the tweet said.

''The health department, in association with the Home department, has jointly started the process of identifying all the 300 who attended the event,'' he said.

Comments

Shaikh mohamme…
 - 
Thursday, 2 Apr 2020

Alhamdulilla...All Praises And Thanks To Allah Subhanawatala...

 

May peace and blessings of Almighty be upon the humans who are effected with this deadly virus.

Ameen

 

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News Network
February 16,2020

Mangaluru, Feb 16: An elderly woman from Tamil Nadu was on Saturday reunited with her daughter and son after 14 years at the Mangaluru's White Doves destitute home.

"Mary only knew her name when she came here 10 years ago. Recently, she told us about her home town," Corrine Rusquinha, founder of White Doves told media.
Mary had gone missing 14 years ago from her hometown Kortampet in Tamil Nadu.

"Ten years ago, she was spotted by Mangaluru police who brought her to White Doves home late one evening. Initially, she could only speak Tamil, so it was presumed she was from Tamil Nadu. She was on psychiatric treatment," Rusquinha said.

A few days back, a visiting priest at the White Doves home spoke to Mary in Tamil and asked about her hometown.

"Surprisingly, she could recall the name of her hometown, following which the visiting priest contacted the pastor at Kortampet. Mary's family, including her daughter Gnana Anthony, who is a paramedic student in Coimbatore, was informed about Mary," she said.

Soon after, Gnana and her elder brother came to Mangaluru to take their mother back to their home.

Mary's husband Jhonson, who worked as a cook, had died within a year of losing his wife.

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