WhatsApp Introduces New Service to Combat Deepfake Threat in India with Fake News Helpline
WhatsApp continues its efforts to curb fake news and misinformation on the platform in India, and now it has launched a helpline to cater to those needs. The helpline will be offered in the form of a WhatsApp chatbot to users in the country starting in March. Meta is partnering with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA) to roll out this service in the country.
The helpline informs and warns users about possible deepfake threats and content floating on the messaging platform from other sources. Without sharing specifics about the chatbot/helpline, WhatsApp users in India will get the service working in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, among others, with more regional languages to be added in the coming months.
WhatsApp is very popular in the country and has become an easy platform for content and news to spread like wildfire.
The last thing Meta and WhatsApp want in an election year is a platform that encourages fake news and deepfake content, which invariably attracts unwanted attention from government agencies and further action. India is one of the markets where WhatsApp decided to limit message forwarding to five to limit its virality, especially if the content is controversial.
Chatbots are becoming the main source of information provision, and WhatsApp relies on its fact-checking team to ensure content is filtered and fake stuff doesn’t spread widely. We’ll be testing the helpline when it launches next month and see if WhatsApp has a credible product that can help people get caught up in fake news.
