WhatsApp brings ‘Checkpoint Tipline’ to curb fake news: Things to know

WhatsApp unveiled its 'Checkpoint Tipline' to check the authenticity of information as it looks to crack down on fake news ahead of general elections in the country.

Launched by 'PROTO', a media-skilling start up, the 'tipline' will create a database of rumours which will help to study misinformation during elections.

People in India can submit misinformation or rumours they receive to the 'Checkpoint Tipline' on WhatsApp (+91-9643-000-888).

When a WhatsApp user shares a suspicious message with the 'tipline', PROTO's verification centre will seek to respond and inform the user if the claim made is verified or not.

The verification centre's response will indicate if information is classified as true, false, misleading, disputed or out of scope and include any other information that is available.

The verification centre is well equipped to review content in the form of pictures, video links or text and covers four regional languages besides English, namely- Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam.

'PROTO' will also look at working with organisations at grassroot-level to submit misinformation circulating across different regions during the election period.

As more data flows in, it will be easier to identify the most susceptible or affected issues, locations, languages, regions, and more.

With the general elections approaching, the government has warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt is made to influence the country's electoral process through undesirable means.

This comes after Facebook received flake from the government after a series of mob-lynching incidents claimed lives last year. The incidents were triggered by rumours circulating on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp has been putting advertisements in newspapers as well as running television and radio campaigns offering tips on how to spot misinformation. It had also last year restricted forwarding messages to five chats at a time as a measure to stop rumours and fake news.

Interestingly, the government is seeking to make social media platforms more accountable by mandating them to introduce tools that can identify and disable 'unlawful content', through proposed changes in the IT rules.

One such amendment requires the social media platforms to enable tracing out of such originators of information as needed by government agencies that are legally authorised.

However, WhatsApp has so far resisted the government's demand for identifying message originators, arguing that such a move would undermine the end-to-end encryption and the private nature of the platform, thereby creating potential for serious misuse.