WhatsApp launches fact-checking service in India in the run-up to elections

WhatsApp offers a fact-checking service in India called the Checkpoint Tipline. Users can send text, images and video to the service and be told whether the information is true, false, misleading or disputed. The data goes into a database.

According to Reuters, Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp is working with local start-up Proto and two more organizations that have experience with projects around disinformation. Not only should the Indian people be assisted in the service, but it should also serve as an investigation into disinformation. “The more data pours in, the better we can pinpoint the most vulnerable issues, places, languages, regions and more,” say the founders of Proto.

The reason for the service is the upcoming parliamentary elections in India. They take place from April 11 to May 23. Several major parties are said to have accused each other of spreading fake news and deny themselves doing the same.

WhatsApp has already taken several steps to combat misinformation and misinformation in the country. For example, the app started showing whether a message has been forwarded, the mass forwarding of messages was banned and a reverse image search function was introduced. Accounts that spread disinformation are also being removed on a regular basis. There have been several incidents in India in which people became victims of lynchings, after false rumors about, for example, child molesters were shared via WhatsApp.

Checkpoint Tipline has been active since Tuesday. Reuters itself sent a message with inaccuracies to the service as part of a trial and more than two hours later there was still no answer. The news agency did receive an acknowledgment of receipt stating that an answer would follow ‘soon’.