Isabel Díaz Ayuso sends a voice note. (Photo: VÍCTOR LERENA-EFE) Election Day … a day to share tons of viral content on WhatsApp. Aware of the bombardment of messages that an electoral appointment supposes and that many of them are not truthful, the instant messaging application will limit the forwarding to prevent hoaxes from circulating in the face of the Madrid 4-M elections. The Facebook-owned app began exploring these limitations in 2018, and in 2020 it further tightened the rules, so that a message can only be broadcast to five chats at a time, and not to 20 as before. In the event that it is identified as ‘highly forwarded’, it can only be forwarded to one. They have managed to reduce this content by 70% since last year, according to Europa Press. For now, in the weeks leading up to the elections, WhatsApp has not detected a growth of hoaxes about politics, although it takes its precautions. The application detects messages that come from a single user and are repeated until abnormal figures are reached, an indicator that they would be being sent in an automated way, contrary to what is allowed by the platform. With this ‘anti-hoax protocol’…
Read More
WhatsApp's decision in the face of the 4-M elections
