WhatsApp combats COVID-19 misinformation with more forward limits

The WhatsApp team has previously taken steps to combat misinformation in its messaging app, such as marking frequently forwarded messages accordingly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen more misinformation spread among users though, and WhatsApp has now announced that it’s introducing more forward limits to frequently forwarded messages.

“We are now introducing a limit so that these messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time,” the company wrote on its blog. This sounds like you can still forward these missives to many contacts, but that you’ll need to hit the “forward” button each time you want to send it to a chat.

The news comes almost two years after WhatsApp first implemented limits on message forwarding. Back then, the Facebook-owned company limited message forwarding to a maximum of five contacts in one go. Clearly the team is cracking down in an even bigger way.

WhatsApp told TechCrunch that the change will be rolling out worldwide today, although it’s unclear if this is a server-side change or if it requires an app update. We’ve also asked WhatsApp for more information and will update the article if/when they get back to us.

Received a forwarded message and not sure if it’s a hoax? Then you can fact-check it via WhatsApp’s fact-checking partners. Check out this list of contacts for the fact-checking contact in your region.