WhatsApp, owned by Facebook said on Tuesday that they will be putting new restrictions on forwarding messages.
Starting from 7th April, messages marked as “highly forwarded” sent through to 5 or more people will have a restriction of forwarding to single person only.
The change has come in light of the current situation that is ongoing amidst COVID-19, where a lot of information is in circulation, some of it is fake news. Facebook’s WhatsApp is trying to protect the users spreading unverified information to avoid panics.
The company said,
However, we’ve seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. We believe it’s important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation.