Facebook Messenger Limits Message Forwarding to Cut Spread of Misinformation

[MacRumors]

Facebook has announced a new forward limit on its Messenger chat platform so that messages can now only be forwarded to five people or groups at a time.

The limiter was revealed in a Facebook Newsroom blog post explaining that the new rule has been introduced to provide users with "a safer, more private messaging experience," particularly amid the ongoing global health crisis and in the run up to major elections in the United States.

Limiting forwarding is an effective way to slow the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content that has the potential to cause real world harm.

The change follows a similar limit on Facebook-owned WhatsApp that was introduced in July. In limiting the ability to forward messages to multiple chats at once, the encrypted messaging platform cited events in India as a specific example of how spreading fake messages could cause harm.

Earlier this year, a series of viral message-related crimes in India resulted in 12 dead in the span of just one month. One incident left one man dead and two others severely injured after false rumors went viral on WhatsApp that they had tried to abduct children.

WhatsApp said it was "horrified" by the violence in India, and that it had announced several changes to help address the issues.

Article Link: Facebook Messenger Limits Message Forwarding to Cut Spread of Misinformation

 

[EvilEvil]

LOL. How is this going to stop bots?

 

[gmarm]

Do they realize that this can also slow the spread of legit news? 😄

 

[T5000]

I am sure this will be applied equally, for any sources

 

[andrewxgx]

"cut the phone lines, contain the spread of misinformation"

 

[Bose789]

Should say, what Facebook decides is misinformation, what with all of their medical and political experts on the pay roll. It’s amazing to me how quickly their experts can determine that certain medical advice is misleading.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Do they realize that this can also slow the spread of legit news? 😄

There’s legit news on Facebook? Needle in a haystack...

 

[ericwn]

Who would read social media and be clever enough to take their “news” at face value?

 

[amartinez1660]

There’s legit news on Facebook? Needle in a haystack...

Or... needle in a needle-stack!

Edit: On another note, damn, I’m shocked at “getting killed by false rumors” like this. Holy crap, this has happened before the internet, but via text messages it’s too much of an instant and wide reach, can put anybody on a death sentence like this.

 

[DoctorTech]

There’s legit news on Facebook? Needle in a haystack...

You beat me to it. I was going to make the exact same comment

 

[mw360]

Do they realize that this can also slow the spread of legit news? 😄

Even legit news doesn't need to go viral across the globe in minutes. It's causing more trouble that it's worth.

 

[thefourthpope]

Edit: On another note, damn, I’m shocked at “getting killed by false rumors” like this. Holy crap, this has happened before the internet, but via text messages it’s too much of an instant and wide reach, can put anybody on a death sentence like this.

Straight out of black mirror

 

[hagjohn]

Do they realize that this can also slow the spread of legit news? 😄

Yeah, because people use FB messenger for news. 😄

 

[incoherent_1]

Facebook certainly seems to be on a PR campaign lately. I don’t believe a word of it, mind you. I think they don’t give a s@$& about democracy, news, etc.

 

[indiekiduk]

This is irrelevant now for the really bad stuff. Misinformation campaigns ask their victims to copy and paste the message content when Facebook already banned the misinformation account from sharing. Sadly because the trail ends with the victim they end up with the police at the door early the next morning while still in their PJs. And the victim has no way to prove they are innocent because the original post is gone by then.

 

[stevoc921]

I am sure this will be applied equally, for any sources

Facebook would NEVER play favorites. 🤪🙄🤬

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Straight out of black mirror

Black Mirror is a collection of crazy stories that could happen within the next ~15 years thanks to recent technological developments.

That a crazy story about social media actually happened shouldn't be surprising... they've had several episodes that only depended on the existence of social media, so realistically could have happened anytime in the past 10 years, and it's just luck that they haven't.

 

[mungo2k]

Do they realize that this can also slow the spread of legit news? 😄

I believe there are people called journalists who work for things called newspapers and TV news for that.

 

[ian87w]

I believe there are people called journalists who work for things called newspapers and TV news for that.

When news media and journalists are quoting mere tweets as news without any further verification or follow ups, it's really difficult to give them any credit.

 

[greenbreadmmm]

The ministry of truth

 

[citysnaps]

Do they realize that this can also slow the spread of legit news? 😄

You get your legit news from FB Messenger?

 

[japanime]

Facebook needs to just stop pretending that it's a Tool with a capital T. 🤣

 

[ian87w]

Yeah, because people use FB messenger for news. 😄

In my country, hoaxes are spread out very easily via Whatsapp and Facebook. And yes, people do consider them as news as the ones sharing those are their friends. All you need is one person to start the chain. There were times when the government had to resort to blocking services like whatsapp/telegram for a few hours to curtail the spread.

 

[IIGS User]

FB is slowly killing itself.

Which is probably good, because FB is killing humanity. And I'm not talking about the physical kind.

If anything resembling civil society exists in 100 years, volumes will be written about how social media almost caused it's demise.

 

[lyngo]

Facebook and privacy do not work in the same conversation with one another.