WhatsApp plans serious restrictions - no power to fake news

Created: 03/09/2022Updated: 03/09/2022 16:56

By: Jennifer Battaglia

In the fight against fake news, WhatsApp could roll out a new function that could mean serious restrictions for users.

© Rüdiger Wölk / IMAGO

In order to make the spread of fake news more difficult, WhatsApp is currently testing a serious restriction.

The new version could come soon for all users.

WhatsApp has been around since 2009 - and it's hard to imagine our daily lives without it.

The chat function from Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) is the most popular messenger service par excellence.

There are around two billion WhatsApp users worldwide, and around 66 million in Germany have WhatsApp installed on their smartphones.

Competitor providers such as Signal or Threema are on the rise, but have not stood a chance compared to WhatsApp's user numbers.

WhatsApp: Forwarding was already limited in 2020

WhatsApp always provides its users with new features and updates.

Recently there have been practical innovations for voice messages.

But not all new WhatsApp functions are always welcome by users.

And that could be the case again now, because WhatsApp is planning a far-reaching restriction.

Anyone who likes to forward messages to different group chats will probably not be able to do this so easily in the future.

Two years ago, WhatsApp limited the forwarding of messages to just five chats.

In addition, texts that have been forwarded several times have since been marked with two arrows.

The company wrote on its website at the time that shared messages can contribute to the spread of fake news.

"We believe it is important to slow the spread of such messages so that WhatsApp remains a place for face-to-face conversations," the April 2020 statement read.

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WhatsApp: New restriction for the messenger service is already being tested

As the consumer

now reports, another restriction is currently being tested.

This should make forwarding WhatsApp messages even more difficult.

The website

has taken a closer look at a planned new version of WhatsApp.

This investigation revealed that messages already marked with a double arrow can only be forwarded to a group chat.

So if you want to send content to several group chats, you have to do it individually.

Forwarding will become much more cumbersome and will take more time.

WhatsApp: The popular messenger service has not yet commented on the restriction

WhatsApp has not yet officially commented on this, but it seems likely that this is also about making it more difficult to spread false information (fake news).

So far, the new version is only available for a small number of test subjects - but that could change soon.

A limited number of users can

try out new apps and features via

Developers offer this opportunity to collect user feedback.

What the feedback for the planned WhatsApp change will look like is questionable.