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Sep 7, 2018 · 9 min read · Listen

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Effect of WhatsApp on dissemination of fake

news.
The World is Real — The News is Fake

The 2016 US elections brought the issue of “fake news”(Allcott, 2017) out to the
forefront as a tool to manipulate the general public. While current media
technology has enabled everyone with the necessary tools to create content, it has
led people with malicious intent to create hoax posts and fake news. Since sharing
is simpler than verifying sources, fake news spreads like wildfire on a global scale.
The fake news ecosystem is redefining our society’s behavior, and its impact can be
disastrous. This article examines if the messaging technology itself or people’s
interaction with the technology that is responsible for fake news spreading on
WhatsApp resulting in dreadful consequences.

Mobile First
IMAGE CREDIT: Initiative, I. G. (2017, June 22). The 2017 Digital News Report is now available. Retrieved from
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/2017-digital-news-report-now-available

The year 2017 marked a tipping point in the US, UK, and Norway where
smartphones usage for news has become equivalent to the computer counterpart.
Other Asian and Nordic countries have adopted the mobile-first path directly. Since
its launch in 2009, WhatsApp has become one of the top peer-to-peer messaging
applications. While social media usage is flattening in most countries, new
messaging applications such as WhatsApp have gained grounds over the computer
access for news in most of the nations.
IMAGE CREDIT: Initiative, I. G. (2017, June 22). The 2017 Digital News Report is now available. Retrieved from
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/2017-digital-news-report-now-available

A survey conducted by Reuters Institute in 2017 found that over half the Malaysians and
Brazilians use WhatsApp for news.

The increased use of social media has been responsible for spreading news that
appears genuine but is fake.

A Medium of Menace

Examining WhatsApp from a technological

standpoint
WhatsApp is different from Facebook. Facebook curates the news feeds using
algorithms from various sources while the messages on WhatsApp is user-
generated. While Facebook posts are public and visible to all the friends of the user,
WhatsApp messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. However, ­this closed
and encrypted nature of messaging service means that unlike Facebook where
activities can be tracked and analyzed by independent entities, it is impossible to do
so in WhatsApp.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/microsiervos/17027851954

Hence, any information on WhatsApp has the potential of becoming viral within
minutes as users’ forward messages to groups and friends and the chain continues
without a way to detect the point of origin of the news. Unless and until the users
report the questionable messages, the security staff does not investigate. Even then,
the security engineers themselves have limited ability to track the origin of
fraudulent messages.

Fast and Fatal

Rumors and gossips have always been around for generations. However, in this new
age, the swiftness of its distribution is problematic. The fake news can be pranks, or
a means of polarising or inducing fear. Regardless, they do harm by playing on the
innocence of the receiver. The Oxford report (Bradshaw, 2018) found the evidence
of a disinformation campaign in a fifth of the 48 countries surveyed occurring over
chat application such as WhatsApp.

There are various instances where WhatsApp has caused anxiety and confusion
among a large mass of people. For instance, a viral video of a small Malaysian girl
who was kidnapped and found begging on the streets of Thailand was found to be
untrue. Then there have been rumors of the import of plastic rice into Kenya and
shared images of police brutality during the last year’s protests for the
independence of Catalonia (Funke, 2017). In 2016, amidst one of the worst outbreak
of the deadly yellow fever virus in Brazil, terrifying rumors were spread on
WhatsApp promoting the anti-vaccine propaganda. This resulted in people became
resistant to the only way the outbreak could be contained (Molteni, 2018).

Fast and Fatal

Examining WhatsApp from a social standpoint

False rumors have been around for generations. However, the technological age has
empowered rapid to the dissemination, which is problematic. The fake news can be
pranks or a means of polarizing or inducing fear. Regardless, they harm by playing
on the naiveté of the receiver. The Oxford report (Bradshaw, 2018) found the
evidence of a disinformation campaign in a fifth of the 48 countries surveyed
occurring over chat application such as WhatsApp.

​In recent years, WhatsApp has caused anxiety among a large mass of people. For
instance, a viral video of a Malaysian girl allegedly kidnapped and found begging on
the streets of Thailand was untrue. Then, there were rumors about the import of
plastic rice into Kenya, and messages of police brutality during the last year’s
demonstrations in Catalonia (Funke, 2017). In 2016, amidst one of the worst
outbreak of the deadly yellow fever virus in Brazil, terrifying rumors were spread on
WhatsApp promoting the anti-vaccine propaganda. Thus people became skeptical
about the best way the outbreak could be contained (Molteni, 2018).

Death by Disinformation
Matters escalated to the next levels since last year which has led to lynching and
people getting killed due to disinformation. A hoax post got circulated in Brazil in
2017 describing con artists abducting kids. An image of a random car’s license plate
was shared along with the post. As the post became viral, the crazed mob tracked
down the car, attacked the alleged kidnappers, and set the car ablaze.

This year the rumor of child-napping was spread on WhatsApp along with a video
clip that was produced as a part of public service announcement in Pakistan but
was edited to appear like a kidnapping. This drove people to mistake a 65-year-old
woman named Rukmini as the “child lifter” and killed her (Goel, 2018).

https://youtu.be/WTcmUxYZVhA
In another city, distributing chocolates to children outside a school proved lethal for
a software engineer who was killed by the mob (Goel, 2018). Similar rumors have
resulted in over a dozen mob lynching and 20 deaths in various parts of India in
2018.

The Cause or the Catalyst?

While WhatsApp itself is simply an alternative to other texting and messaging
services; analysts have frowned upon its immeasurable impact that cannot be
estimated publicly. It’s wrong to place the blame only on the medium rather than
people who start and spread disinformation. Even with its closed nature, there can
be hundreds of participants in a single private group. These group chats are
themselves confined since an existing member must invite anyone else. When
families, friends, etc., continue creating their individual secret networks, it moves
beyond anyone else’s control. There is no way to know that a particular group even
exists unless the person is a part of it. This closed nature of the platform intensifies
pockets of powerful echo chambers or filter bubbles, especially in a political
climate, where the environment is profoundly polarized and makes tracking the
extent and origins of disinformation nearly impossible for researchers, journalists,
and police.

​However, the convenience of pranksters hiding behind the secrecy of WhatsApp

could be just one reason for such rash outcomes of disinformation. There could be
different reasons coupled with the use of WhatsApp. First, all these countries are
developing nations with extremely skewed literacy rates. While mobile subscribers
are growing enormously, tech illiteracy is still high. The rapid growth of the
smartphone market has enabled millions of poorly educated citizens in developing
nations to come online or get in touch with technology for the first time. Around
80% of Brazil’s population (Molteni, 2018) use WhatsApp, 86% of Kenyans have
mobile phone subscriptions. In India, while only 47% had a toilet in their homes,
53% of people had a mobile phone by 2016 (Bhattacharya, 2016). Yet all of these
nations are large markets for WhatsApp. Therefore, with limited exposure to
technology, these people are quick to believe whatever is shared on their phones as
true.

​Also, mob violence and misjudged lynchings are nothing new in parts of India and
Brazil. The messages in Brazil and India have only preyed on the fear of injury to a
child or cow slaughter. The fake news such as kidnap warnings is transmitted from
friends and family. The idea of verifying information received from friends or
relatives via a message does not exist for many users which means that the trend
continues. Also, there is less faith in the rule of law in these nations, which
eventually drive mobs to take matters into their own hands and seek revenge or
justice. In many cases, the emotional trigger for hate crimes was an excuse. For
instance, 15 people out of 25 involved in lynching incident in Maharashtra, India
were drunk, and only four had passed higher secondary school. Thus, the
conditions existing in these nations are already ripe for such incidents. The spread
of smartphones and WhatsApp is helping spread it across all social divisions
promoting misguided and polarized views through forwarded posts.

Good, bad and ugly

While journalists and rights group praise WhatsApp’s commitment towards user
privacy, not everyone shares the same view. WhatsApp is also the breeding ground
for trouble that may be brewing and remain invisible until it becomes massive.

​In different countries like Columbia, fact-checking initiatives for shared content
have been placed. Law enforcement in Italy launched a portal for citizens to report
fake news in social media and messaging applications before the elections this year.
In some countries like Thailand, the group admin in the WhatsApp group is
responsible if members spread fake news. In Kenya, Government officials closely
monitor WhatsApp conversations and trends.

Some Governments have taken a slightly more suppressive route. In Brazil,

WhatsApp had been banned three times already. The Brazilian Government has also
used the help of the army to repress fake news. Cyber troops have been involved in
“astroturfing” campaigns in other countries like Ecuador, Israel, and Serbia
(Woolley, 2017). However, in a few oppressive regimes, we already see many
journalists being wrongly imprisoned after being accused of spreading “fake news.”
With this trend of Government intervention, the freedom and security that
WhatsApp provides to its users could be at stake. It demands bigger questions of
what all needs to be considered as “fake news” and who shall be responsible in
deciding the policies pertaining to the legality of “fakeness” and the associated
penalties.

After recent unfortunate events, WhatsApp is already making efforts to curb the
fake news phenomenon. It has already begun labeling all forwarded messages in
India (Goel, 2018). WhatsApp has published ads to educate people about such fake
news phenomenon. The company has promised to work with police departments.
WhatsApp is also trying to use machine learning techniques to determine
suspicious links that are being shared. However, we still don’t know how efficient
and unbiased these fake news filters and policies will prove to be.

Conclusion

IMAGE: [url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_To_Spot_Fake_News.jpg]How To Spot Fake

News[/url] [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], by IFLA, from Wikimedia Commons

Freedom of expression is a human right, and its protection is very crucial. These
horrible incidents arising from disinformation disseminated through WhatsApp has
already compelled different Governments to regulate and modify the way
WhatsApp works. Future will decide whether WhatsApp remains the leading tool
for upholding the freedom of speech in our technological world filled with constant
surveillance.

The examination of the phenomenon shows that the closed nature of this
messaging app is only one of the reasons for dreadful consequences arising from
the spread of fake news, we also find that this phenomenon is more widespread and
lead to a crisis in countries having mob culture and media illiteracy. In the end, we
have to understand that technology is just a tool. Consequently, it’s upon each one of
us to follow what Ronald Reagan once advised, “Trust but verify.”

Bibliography
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016
election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211–36.

BBCNews (2018, June 28). The India WhatsApp video driving people to murder —
BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTcmUxYZVhA

Bhattacharya, P. (2016, December 05). 88% of households in India have a mobile

phone. Retrieved from
https://www.livemint.com/Politics/kZ7j1NQf5614UvO6WURXfO/88-of-
households-in-India-have-a-mobile-phone.html

Bradshaw, S., & Howard, P. N. (2018, July 20). Challenging Truth and Trust: A
Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation. Retrieved from
http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/cybertroops2018/

Funke, D. (2017, October 10). Online hoaxes about the Catalan referendum
concentrated on police action in Barcelona. Retrieved from
https://www.poynter.org/news/online-hoaxes-about-catalan-referendum-
concentrated-police-action-barcelona

Goel, V., Raj, S., & Ravichandran, P. (2018, July 18). How WhatsApp Leads Mobs
to Murder in India. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/18/technology/whatsapp-india-
killings.html?emc=edit_nn_20180718&nl=morning-
briefing&nlid=6647568320180718&te=1

Initiative, I. G. (2017, June 22). The 2017 Digital News Report is now available.
Retrieved from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/2017-digital-
news-report-now-available
 Molteni, M. (2018, March 11). When WhatsApp’s Fake News Problem Threatens
Public Health. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/when-whatsapps-
fake-news-problem-threatens-public-health/

Woolley, S. C., & Howard, P. N. (2017, January). Computational Propaganda

Worldwide: Executive Summary. Retrieved from
https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/computational-propaganda-worldwide-executive-
summary/

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