Spread of viral WhatsApp messages drops by 70% following introduction of forwarding limit

WhatsApp's curb against viral misinformation results in a 70% decrease in highly forwarded messages. — AFP

WhatsApp says it has seen a 70% decrease in highly forwarded messages, following measures to curb the virality of messaging.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement that this was the result of introducing a limit to sharing “highly forwarded messages” to just one chat.

Introduced globally on April 7, the limit cut down the 'forward to' option from five people or groups to just one.

The messaging service had first introduced such a limit back in July 2018, allowing forwarded messages to be sent to 20 people or groups at most globally while simultaneously testing a lower limit of five chats at once in India.

This lower limit of five chats for highly forwarded messages was then implemented for all users in January 2019. Recently, WhatsApp announced that that measure resulted in a 25% reduction in forwarded messages in two years.

“This change is helping keep WhatsApp a place for personal and private conversations. WhatsApp is committed to doing our part to tackle viral messages,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch.

WhatsApp had earlier stated it was seeing a surge in the number of messages forwarded in the last few weeks, which contributed to the spread of misinformation while overwhelming users too.

Much of the misinformation via social media was related to the Covid-19 pandemic, an issue that WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook was taking a stand against.