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How many times have you told your friends, family and acquaintances not to send those messages, that are pure hoaxes or false news that grow and multiply on WhatsApp ? Well, it seems that those responsible for the courier service have also tired of the fake news or hoaxes that circulate around there.
And it is that in some countries, WhatsApp hoaxes go much further than an innocent message. In India, for example, a hoax has ended in the murder of five citizens. According to The Washington Post, five people were lynched to death this past Monday in a small Indian town over false rumors of child trafficking.The villagers took it out on them after one spoke to a child.
Facebook, the owner of WhatsApp, through Facebook Research, wants to launch an initiative to end hoaxes, fake news or false news that is spread through this messaging tool.
How WhatsApp will detect the presence of hoaxes
Here the company will open the doors to different suggestions and proposals, with the aim of studying how false news spreads through the system. To find out how they spread, it will be necessary to consider the contextual information of the hoaxes For example, they want to study if they occur during elections, campaigns or electoral pre-campaigns, if are viral and what kind of people share them, measuring their digital literacy rate or lack thereof.
On the other hand, Facebook Research will also try to locate and detect strange or illegal behavior, without compromising the content. Do not lose sight of the fact that WhatsApp encrypts communications through end-to-end encryption
Researchers can register until August 12
From now on, investigators will get to work to investigate the presence of hoaxes in the messaging service. The results and conclusions of the study will not be released publicly, not at this time. In addition, WhatsApp will offer guidance to researchers, but they will not be able to provide data included in conversations Simply because they do not have access to it.
The proposal is open to all research teams that wish to apply.Applications may be made until August 12 and the payment for the research, which will be borne by WhatsApp, will be made directly to the universities or organizations of the researchers are part of, not them.
