B4| Wednesday, April 8, 2020 ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech

say, since they can’t be traced

to their original senders.

Though WhatsApp’s new

measures apply globally and

misinformation is passed on

everywhere, the problem is

particularly acute in develop-

ing countries such as India, its

biggest market by users, with

400 million.

Infections in India have

jumped in recent days, with

more than 4,700 confirmed

cases of Covid-19, the disease

caused by the new virus, and

more than 130 deaths, accord-

ing to data compiled by Johns

Hopkins University. Though

the number is relatively small

given the country’s population

of 1.3 billion, the uptick

prompted Prime Minister Nar-

endra Modi on March 24 to

impose a nationwide lockdown

for three weeks.

That has sent many people

indoors, where they are ramp-

ing up their use of WhatsApp.

They are blasting out mes-

sages, many well intentioned

but misguided, fueled by con-

WhatsApp that have circulated

in India in recent weeks, ac-

cording to fact-checking

groups, is a claim that a treat-

ment has been developed that

cures Covid-19 within three

hours. Others say a disinfec-

tant will be sprayed in cities

at night to kill the virus and

that NASA satellite images

show the coronavirus has been

abating in India. All were

identified by fact checkers as

false.

India’s Press Information

Bureau last week debunked a

popular WhatsApp forward

claiming the country’s finan-

cial year would be extended by

three months because of the

coronavirus. The bureau also

said one widely circulating

WhatsApp message, appar-

ently designed to stop bogus

WhatsApp forwards about the

coronavirus by claiming the

government had declared such

messages a “punishable of-

fense,” was itself false.

Dubious messages have

flourished on the service in re-

cent years, some leading to

mob violence in India, and

WhatsApp has made earlier

tweaks to try to stem the flow.

In 2019, it trimmed to five the

number of individuals or

groups users could forward

messagesto,downfrom20.

WhatsApp joined with the

World Health Organization

and the government of India

last month to enable users to

sign up to receive verified cor-

onavirus information from

those groups through the ser-

vice. WhatsApp has also

launched a page on its website

about the coronavirus, in part-

nership with groups such as

the WHO and Unicef.

WhatsApp also announced

last month a $1 million grant

to the International Fact-

Checking Network, part of the

nonprofit Poynter Institute.

Facebook founder and Chief

Executive Mark Zuckerberg

said last month that the WHO

and governments have sent

more than 100 million mes-

sages over WhatsApp.

FacebookInc.’s WhatsApp
is limiting users’ ability to for-
ward content on its encrypted
messaging platform, as misin-
formation about the coronavi-
rus pandemic proliferates on
the service in its biggest mar-
ket, India.
In one of the biggest
changes WhatsApp has made
to a core feature, the company
said Tuesday that its more
than two billion users globally
can now send along frequently
forwarded messages they re-
ceive to only one person or
group at a time, down from
five.
In recent weeks, the com-
pany has “seen a significant
increase in the amount of for-
warding which users have told
us can feel overwhelming and
can contribute to the spread of
misinformation,” the company
said.
WhatsApp is also testing a
new feature that enables users
to click an icon next to fre-
quently forwarded messages—
those forwarded at least five
times—to search the web for
their contents and verify them
before sending the message to
others, a WhatsApp spokes-
woman said.
World-wide, Facebook,
Twitter Inc. and YouTube,
owned by Alphabet Inc.’s
Google, have been battling
misinformation related to the
coronavirus on their plat-
forms. The European Union is
reviving an alliance formed
last year with U.S. tech com-
panies to fight online political
disinformation, now focusing
on false information about the
coronavirus.
While those platforms mod-
erate content users post and
can eliminate problematic ma-
terial, all WhatsApp messages
are encrypted. That helps tur-
bocharge the spread of mes-
sages on WhatsApp, analysts

BYNEWLEYPURNELL

WhatsApp Fights Misinformation

Falsehoods spreading

about virus in India lead

Facebook to limit ability

to forward content

In recent weeks, the company has seen an significant rise in forwarded content. A woman used WhatsApp in New Delhi last month.

MANISH SWARUP/ASSOCIATED PRESS

cerns about their health and

that of friends and family

members. Independent fact-

checking groups and govern-

ment officials say many of the

messages contain falsehoods.

“It’s going through the

roof,” said Tarun Pathak, a

New Delhi-based technology

analyst with research firm

Counterpoint. “I am receiving

at least five fake messages ev-

ery three hours.”

One concern is limited digi-

tal literacy among many in In-

dia. Hundreds of millions have

gotten online for the first time

in recent years as mobile-data

prices have plummeted.

Among the messages on

Hundreds of millions

have gotten online

for the first time in

recent years.

CNN said it acquired Can-

opy, the maker of a news-

reader app whose technology

the company is planning to

use for its forthcoming news-

aggregation service.

CNN, which is a unit of

AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia,

didn’t disclose the financial

terms of the deal.

Canopy, which has about 15

employees in New York and

Massachusetts, builds prod-

ucts that help users discover

online content through a mix

of human curation and ma-

chine learning. CNN said Tues-

day that the deal has closed,

and Canopy’s developers now

work for CNN.

CNN plans to use Canopy’s

technology and developers to

help power “NewsCo,” the

working title for a news-ag-

gregation service it is launch-

ing. NewsCo doesn’t yet have

a firm launch date or a settled

consumer-facing brand.

CNN’s digital arm has an

uneven record with acquisi-

tions. In 2016, CNN bought

Beme, a video-sharing startup

founded by YouTube star

Casey Neistat in a deal worth

about $25 million. The com-

pany closed Beme in 2018 af-

ter failing to turn it into a

popular news brand, and Mr.

Neistat left the company. CNN

said at the time it still was

committed to investing in digi-

tal video.

News-aggregation apps

have become popular among

major media companies, as

some seek to offer users an al-

ternative to popular services

from Facebook Inc., Alphabet

Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc.

News Corp, owner of Wall

Street Journal parent Dow

Jones & Co., recently launched

a website called Knewz.com

that features links to stories

and publications from around

the world.

BYBENJAMINMULLIN

CNN Buys

An App

To Curate

The News

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