India is WhatsApp’s biggest market, as was evident on New Year’s Eve this year: the 200 million (and counting) Indians sent 20 billion WhatsApp messages – more than any other country in the world. But what is the downside to the immense popularity? Over a few months, multiple stories of people being lynched and injured in various parts of the country, including Tamil Nadu, due to false stories circulated on WhatsApp have taken the centre-stage. 

What’s startling is that the messages don’t look like random rumours, but meticulously composed and look official enough to deceive the average user’s eye. The subject could be anything: kidnappers, an organ donation scam going on at a hospital in the neighbourhood, or even information about a new government scheme. 

To the undiscerning eye, concern or panic could set in, prompting them to forward the message to all the groups they are part of, covering family, friends, acquaintances and colleagues, and the chain carries on and on, until the next viral message finds its way into our phones. But by then, the damage is done. 

An alarming statistic about the proliferation of fake news and rumours on WhatsApp revealed that 33 deaths and 99 injuries have been reported since the beginning of 2017 as a direct consequence of lynching triggered by child lifting rumours spread on the messaging platform. In Tamil Nadu, there have been four deaths in 12 instances of mob violence as a result of child lifting rumours. 

On July 1, at the busy Teynampet signal, Gopal and Binoth, two migrant labourers working on the Metro Rail project, were thrashed by a mob after a stranger mistook their interactions with a child to be that of child-lifters. 

The two men sustained severe injuries, and were saved from death only by the arrival of the police. A pattern emerges as most victims of the rumours have been migrants, outsiders or mentally ill. Mob fury is directed at the most vulnerable and marginalised as the public do not spare a moment to ascertain the veracity of information.

Last week, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded greater accountability from WhatsApp, stating that the Indian government would not tolerate the platform being misused to spread fake messages. Other experts have pointed out that the company’s staffing in India is too thin and expansion happened without understanding the vast population here, or the unprecedented growth and means the platform has been used for. With Facebook for instance, filtering is possible using editors. But as messages are encrypted at both ends of the conversation in WhatsApp, it is nearly impossible to hack and find the source of a particular message. Others have suggested linking WhatsApp and other social media profiles to Aadhaar, which could potentially help the police to crackdown on those spreading fake news. S Sudarsan, CEO of Copyright Media, a digital privacy firm that focuses on safeguarding reputation, said, “It’s difficult to admit this, but there’s not much anyone can do if a message about someone goes viral on the medium. For instance, we have witnessed instances of a medicine being panned after some forwarded message on its ill-effects made the rounds. The only way to confirm such information is to do a Google search and be sure of the veracity.” Meanwhile, ahead of the general election that is less than a year away, several of the country’s parties are apparently allocating part of their budget to WhatsApp campaigns, as there is a realisation that this is an opportunity to reach voters unable to figure out the difference between real and fake news.

The company is facing the concern of being held responsible for spreading misinformation, especially during the election time. In the face of mounting call for action to curb the spread of fake news and doctored videos over the platform, WhatsApp has promised the roll out of multiple features designed to help authenticate information. The key feature is highlighting forwarded messages to distinguish it with the messages composed by the sender. WhatsApp also reiterated that the problem of fake news and rumours can be tackled only in collaboration. 

“We believe that false news, misinformation and the spread of hoaxes are issues best tackled collectively: by government, civil society and technology companies working together," the company said in a statement. It has announced a grant of $50,000 to researchers looking into the issues related to spread of misinformation on WhatsApp in India. The ‘WhatsApp Research Awards’ is an unrestricted grant to fund independent proposal designed to be shared with WhatsApp and its parent company, Facebook. Applications for proposals is due by August 12. The company also promised more action in the pipeline in India. It said, “We are also working hard to educate people. For example, we regularly put out information that explains how to spot fake news and hoaxes… As a starting point, we will soon publish new educational materials around misinformation and conduct our news literacy workshops." 

Digital piracy expert M Kirubhanandhan, who works with a number of firms to protect their data, lists a few methods via which the public can respond to such information.

One of the earliest and most popular instances of fake news on WhatsApp was propagated when demonetisation was introduced. A message stating that the new Rs 2,000 notes would include an embedded GPS chip that would allow the government to track down hoarders spread like wildlife, along with a doctored video that showed one of these ‘GPS notes’ being tracked on Google Maps. It was later dismissed by the Reserve Bank of India as “figments of imagination”. 

What could be the motive behind the people who formulate these messages carrying fake news, though? Theories differ on the agenda, with some arguing it is to cause communal rifts using religious differences as the ploy, while others like information consultant Karthik Kumar Viswanathan say it is political. 

“Fake news is obviously spread for political motives. Just like real news is also affiliated politically. The best way to tackle it is to present the facts as facts, leaving opinions aside. Unless people start seeing truth or value in news articles, it will be impossible for them to trust any news source.”

He says that as long as the platform has a report forward as spam, fake news or offending, WhatsApp can do something about it. “Any other way to do it is politically incorrect.  Also, giving citations or references may be really helpful. Wikipedia does it, why can’t news sources do it?” he quips.

WhatsApp has also provided information on how it is being proactive to feedback constantly as well. It released a statement in a letter recently, “In mid-May, we added new protections to prevent people from adding others back into groups which they had left — a form of misuse we think it is important to correct. We also launched a new setting that enables administrators to decide who gets to send messages within individual groups. This will help reduce the spread of unwanted messages into important group conversations — as well as the forwarding of hoaxes and other content.” 

“People are increasingly using WhatsApp to get advice from their doctor, do business or communicate with their bank — as well as to chat with family and friends. They want to know these messages are private and secure — and that none else is reading them. This focus on privacy brings many benefits, though as with all technology there are trade-offs. And for WhatsApp, that's the inability to see problematic content spreading through private conversations on our app,” added the statement.