Photo via H2S Media
Ever received a viral message but you weren’t sure of its authenticity? Bet we all have!
Well, you can now be sure of what you forward to other people, as WhatsApp has announced a fact-checking feature for viral messages.
You’ll be able to verify a message’s contents to see if it’s actually misinformation.
The new fact-check feature will appear as a magnifying glass icon that will appear next to messages that have been forwarded through chains of five or more people.
Tapping it will allow users to upload the message onto their Web browser to perform searches for related news, so you can fact-check without WhatsApp ever seeing the message itself.
“Today, we’re piloting a simple way to double-check these messages by tapping a magnifying glass button in the chat,” WhatsApp said. “Providing a simple way to search messages that have been forwarded many times may help people find news results or other sources of information about content they have received.”
To show how this works, the company used a perfect example of how easily people can be misled by fake news.
Photo via The Straits Times
Pictured above is a message that contained the claim that “drinking fresh boiled garlic water will cure COVID-19” - the web search function brings up three factchecking websites stating that the claim is false.
Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available in Malaysia just yet, as it’s still being piloted in Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the US.
For now, you can always check sebenarnya.my to verify any information on social media.
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
