
WhatsApp limits message forwarding in bid to tackle spread of misinformation - colinprince
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/whatsapp-forwarding-limits-misinformaton-rumours-1.4987096
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sctb
Previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18962992](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18962992).

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jermaustin1
Why do they support forwarding anyway? Has there ever been a useful mass
foward on a social media platform?

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skrebbel
Because it's a useful feature. Don't forget that WhatsApp isn't designed much
as a social media platform as a utility.

I use it all the time. For example, some parent from school sends me a message
if their kid can play with my son tomorrow. I forward it to my wife so that
she's in the loop. Super handy.

My sister sends me a nice photo of my kids. I forward it to the in-laws'
family group (who live far away). They love getting pictures of their
grandchildren. Super handy.

I suspect that it's stuff like this that the feature was designed for. I think
it's hard for UX designers to imagine that there are millions of people who
will believe anything they're sent and who will forward it to everybody. And
that it's somehow the app's fault if people do it.

I mean, I'm no big fan of Facebook Inc, but where were the outraged news paper
articles when people forwarded extremist nonsense, scams and viruses to their
entire email contact list? Why didn't they demand action from, eh, whoever
designed SMTP, _immediately_?

WhatsApp has no fancy engagement-maximizing algorithms that we can get angry
at. It's really just texting with groups and mixed media. Forward something to
100 people, 100 phones are going to buzz.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that people in the US don't use
WhatsApp because texting is free. Do people in America get angry at telcos
when people send violence inducing bullshit text messages to each other?

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ankmathur96
100% agree

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soziawa
How is that supposed to help with anything? It'll just take a bit longer to
forward a message to all your friends, that's all.

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omaranto
Adding a bit of friction reduces the number of people motivated enough to
overcome it.

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soziawa
We're talking about people willing to kill. It seems obvious to me that these
are the kind of people that are motivated enough to tap on their phone 10 more
times.

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mathnmusic
People willing to kill is a small subset of people willing to forward rumors.
Deliberate friction can indeed be useful.

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0xcafecafe
Still doesn't help in the case when you are a member of groups with a lot of
people. They should limit it as one group or 5 individuals. It is restrictive
but I consider most forwards as spam as it is.

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aboutruby
May help with general spam. I think regulating groups would be a much better
idea:

    
    
        Possible limit of messages per day/hour/minute
        Possible limit to certain members as "viewers"/"spectators"-only
        Possible threading (otherwise responses about a certain information are just buried / mixed)

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sschueller
"I am sorry but the message you are trying to send has been deemed a violation
of our ToS and can not be sent."

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Tsubasachan
Yeah I don't think people realize that this is also a form of censorship. I am
sure countries like Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia will be pleased.

Also wary of making companies responsible for solving social issues.

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j16sdiz
Meanwhile, Facebook, WhatsApp's parent company, happily spreading crypto
currency scam with their ad network

