WhatsApp launches fact-check service ahead of General Elections in India

WhatsApp messages stored on Google Drive are not Encrypted

WhatsApp on Tuesday launched a new service called Checkpoint Tipline, for Indians to combat the fake news ahead of General elections beginning this month. 

The Facebook-owned company was working with a local startup PROTO, which aimed at creating a database of false, misleading or disputed. 

The initiative is funded by the WhatsApp to study misinformation spread ahead of the upcoming elections for Checkpoint

The company has set up a verification centre, which would verify posts that are in the form of pictures, video links or text. This center will cover four regional languages – Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam, apart from English. 

“The goal of this project is to study the misinformation phenomenon at scale,” Proto’s founders Ritvvij Parrikh and Nasr ul Hadi said in a statement. “As more data flows in, we will be able to identify the most susceptible or affected issues, locations, languages, regions and more.”

In a statement released by the WhatsApp said the start up Proto would be helped by two other organisations who have prior experience working on misinformation-related projects.

“The challenge of viral misinformation requires more collaborative efforts and cannot be solved by any one organisation alone,” WhatsApp said.

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