Picture this scenario: you’re chilling at home, having a chat about this, that, and everything with your buddies on your WhatsApp group.

Suddenly, someone on the group forwards news they received about a mega hurricane that’s on its on the way to South Africa.

That’s enough to get you and your other mates into a tizz. Thing is, though, that piece of “news” is often a load of crap.

According to a report by The Guardian, new analysis by the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute found that consumers around the world are reading less news on Facebook and are increasingly turning to WhatsApp – which has 1,5 billion active users worldwide – to share and discuss news stories.

Nic Newman, who co-wrote this analysis, said that people are moving to spaces like WhatsApp because they get more privacy:

If you’re in an authoritarian regime you can use it to talk safely about politics – but it can also be used for nefarious means.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, WhatsApp has no algorithm deciding which content is shown to users, no ability for outside companies to buy adverts, and discussion happens within private groups.

That means a Cambridge Analytica-type data scandal ain’t gonna happen any time soon.

But it also means the content of messages isn’t intercepted or monitored, which can result in misinformation and fake news stories being spread quite quickly between users.

For example, take this “warning” that one of my colleagues received on WhatsApp last Thursday, when Capetonians were bracing themselves for the mother of all storms:

Chances are that one or more of your Capetonian chums got forwarded a message like this and went into a panic.

You know what happens next? The City of Cape Town issues a statement saying it’s fake, but nobody actually sees the statement and the cycle carries on unabated.

Other countries have also felt the brunt of fake news being spread through WhatsApp: in Brazil, WhatsApp has been put on blast for a yellow fever outbreak after being used to spread anti-vaccine videos and audio messages.

Over in Kenya, WhatsApp group admins have been described as a major source of politically motivated fake news during recent elections.

So why do people fall for these fake news items?

Per the report, the sense that news “is being provided in secret by a friend – who got it from their friend, who claims to have got it from their friend, who claims to be in the know – is part of the appeal”, making the content of these rumours look legit.

Besides, you wouldn’t want to make your friend look stupid if you called them out on the group.

WhatsApp is apparently aware of the issue. A spokesperson for the social media platform said:

We’ve made it easy to block a phone number with just one tap – and are constantly evolving our tools to block automated content. We’re working to give people more control over private groups, which remain strictly limited in size.

We’re also stepping up our education efforts so that people know about our safety features, as well as how to spot fake news and hoaxes.

Easier said than done, but given time, rooting out fake news in WhatsApp groups will be an easier process.

Plus, it’ll save your tjommie the embarrassment of forwarding nonsense in the first place.

[source:guardian]