One of the good things about the internet is that information can travel anywhere around the globe, in a blink of an eye.
In WhatsApp' case, it has delivered countless of messages from users, making people closer together, just like what founder Jan Koum wanted.
However, things got awry when more and more people use the platform, and many just love to spread forwarded message without understanding the context.
What happened next, is the spread of fake news, hoaxes and misinformation, as well as spam.
In a bid to reduce them, WhatsApp has added labels that indicate when a message has been forwarded. And based on that iteration, the company is imposing limits on how many people a message can be forwarded to.
Previously, WhatsApp users were able to forward messages on the platform to over 250 people at once. With an update, WhatsApp is limiting that to 20 people worldwide.
And in India where WhatsApp has shared controversies in which it has come under intense criticism for the role of amplifying violence, the limit is just 5.
In addition to that, the 'quick forward’ option that allowed users to quickly pass on images and videos to others is removed from the country.
"We believe that these changes — which we’ll continue to evaluate — will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app," said the company in a blog post.
The change is a direct response from WhatsApp after a series of incidents in India, where forwarded fake news about child kidnappers went viral. Angered, people in villages have severely beaten and even killed strangers.
Reportedly, 17 other people have been killed in the past year under similar circumstances, with police saying the cause was false rumors spreading via WhatsApp.
Theoretically, limiting the ability of users to forward messages should make it more difficult for fake information to spread and go viral, although clearly this isn’t a move that can end the problem altogether. But WhatsApp hopes that the limits imposed can slow down the viral impact that social networks have become known for.
Facebook’s fake news problem didn't just happen in India. Some other countries have also experienced their own share of fake news problems spreading through the popular messaging platform.
Most notably besides India, were Myanmar and Sri Lanka that fake news had also resulted in killings.
And also regarding fake news, WhatsApp is also worried when one unnamed political party in India has started using the messaging app to message thousands of voters at once. The encrypted nature of the app makes it difficult for anyone, including itself, to monitor this campaign to ensure political parties are playing fair.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would be updating its stance on fake news that can result in violence. Instead of trying to hide those posts from appearing on the service, as it does with other posts promoting false news, he said that Facebook is planning to take down those kinds of contents entirely.
"I mean, my emotion is feeling a deep sense of responsibility to try to fix the problem," he said. "That’s the most productive stance."
Later in January 2019, WhatsApp further decreased the number of forwarded messages, from 20 to 5 to all users globally.