WhatsApp launches second phase of radio campaign in India to curb fake news

After facing severe criticism from the government over circulation of fake news on its platform that incited multiple incidents of mob lynching across the country, the Facebook-owned company WhatsApp today stepped up crackdown efforts by expanding its radio campaign to 10 more Indian states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, said a report.

Earlier on August 29, WhatsApp started the first phase of its radio campaign, which urges users to check the veracity of information received as a forward before sharing it with others, in seven states including Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

In a statement today, WhatsApp said, "The second phase of the campaign starts on September 5 with radio ads across 83 radio stations of AIR across the states of Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Orissa and Tamil Nadu." 

These campaigns will run in eight regional languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Oriya and Tamil and will run for a 15-day duration, the statement said, adding "The campaign has been designed in an easy-to-understand format to help users spot misinformation and further sensitise them about the challenges of fake news and addressing these as a society." 

These campaigns advise users to verify authenticity of messages before forwarding them and to report content that they might find to be inflammatory, said PTI report, adding that it also cautions users to be careful about forwarding messages that contain misinformation. It reportedly cautioned the messaging app users that doing so could have serious repercussions.

WhatsApp, which has reportedly been slapped with two notices to check the spread of fake news, has taken several measures, including restricting the number of forwards and added "forward" label to help users identify such messages. 

The messaging app is reportedly in the process to establish a local corporate entity. 

WhatsApp, however, has not accepted the government's demand for traceability of messages stating that creating such a software will go against the idea of user privacy and end-to-end encryption.

With general elections slated to be held next year in India, the government is taking a tough stance on use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp for spread of misinformation. It had warned WhatsApp that it will treat the messaging platform as abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences will follow if adequate checks are not put in place.

In a meeting with WhatsApp Head Chris Daniels, Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the company should find a solution to track origin of messages on its platform, set up a local corporate entity that is subject to Indian laws within a defined timeframe as well as appoint a grievance officer.

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Notably, India is a key market for WhatsApp, which has over 200 million users in India.