Fake news on WhatsApp
Representative photo. Image credit - www.businesstoday.in

With an aim to curb the spread of misinformation and fake news- especially forward messages carrying wrong information- social media giant WhatsApp is working on a new feature

The new feature will help users cross-check forwarded messages on WhatsApp and the work to developing the feature is on.

WhatsApp’s latest beta update comes with this feature that lets users search for ‘Frequently Forwarded Messages’ on the web.

The frequently forwarded messages in WhatsApp are labelled on top of the text, and this indicates that the message may not be genuine.

The new WhatsApp feature shows a magnifying glass icon along with the forwarded message and once one taps on the search icon, the App will ask if the users would like to search the message on the web.

The message text will then be uploaded on the web and a simple Google search will be carried out.

Even though the feature isn’t available for WhatsApp public beta as of now, however, the social media giant has confirmed that it is testing the feature and plans to introduce it soon.