Posted on 11/02/2018 8:47:59 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Facebook’s efforts to crack down on fake news have been focused on its 2 billion-person social network, but a recent spate of news stories from around the world point to a different and possibly more urgent problem - the spread of misinformation on its popular messaging service, WhatsApp.
Researchers have found that fake news stories and rumors spread quickly via person-to-person and group messages on the app, using its features in culturally specific ways or taking advantage of third-party workarounds to add extra layers of utility - and creating new avenues of potential abuse in the process.
The resulting spread of false information has been linked to violence in several countries in the past year.
In Mexico, two people were beaten and burned to death in August after rumors spread on WhatsApp of people kidnapping children and harvesting their organs. In India, a video edited to look like a kidnapping that spread on WhatsApp inspired mobs to kill two dozen people. In Sri Lanka, the government temporarily shut down WhatsApp as well as Facebook, Instagram and the messaging app Viber as part of an effort to stop ethnic conflicts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Why would Russians do this???
Whatsapp is OWNED by Facebook.
They bought it back around 2012 for I think $10B
WhatsApp is also how reporters communicate with their confidential sources on Capitol Hill.
Several
Idiots tried to get me to use this crap
I said F off
Isn’t it just an app for sending text message? What’s the big deal?
I have to admit, I have never even looked at WhatsApp. I don’t follow Instagram, have a real Facebook, my Twitter is fake.
If you’re thinking WhatsApp is what’s replaced AOL or Yahoo Messenger, MSN or ICQ?
It’s kind of like comparing a biplane is as much of a plane as a 787.
The reach and functionality of social media apps can outrun any MSM outlet in terms of speed and distribution.
The citizens of Sierra Leone use WhatsApp almost religiously. Even the government officials use ti for all kinds of official business. All of the reporting and offical work done concrening the landslide last year was done on WhatsApp.
You cannot do anything with anyone important without WhatsApp.
A friend’s sister who lives in Mexico City uses it to send photos via text to the US. She says it uses less data. Couldn’t say re encryption. Seems harmless. Perhaps the fedgov has no backdoor?
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