The most famous and widely used social messaging platform, Whatsapp is being flooded by fake news and rumors day by day, it has become the need of the hour for the awareness to be spread among people about the consequences and risks attached to the spreading of fake news as Whatsapp has the user platform of more than 200 million users. In the last few incidents of fake news, the company had to face serious and stern restrictions from the government.
Whatsapp Fake News TV Campaign
Whatsapp is all set to launch its first-ever TV campaign in India to fight back fake news. This step would have three 60 seconds of films and these have come into existence with the close working and expertise of filmmaker Shirsha Guha Thakurta. The motive of these three short films will be to spread the actual and real scenarios about the fake news and rumors which can spread among users.
This TV campaign is all timed to start right before the Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Telangana. These awareness related short films would be available on TV, Facebook and Youtube and would also be in nine different languages. Through some researches conducted it was also found that these campaigns would have a strong impact on the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls.
Bosco Zubiaga Said on Whatsapp Fake News TV Commercial
It was quoted by Bosco Zubiaga, who led the production of these films for WhatsApp, ” We’re humbled by the impact that WhatsApp had on people’s ability to freely connect with their loved ones. We recognize at the same time connecting people can also lead to the spread of misinformation, which has to be confronted.
There were many other changes introduced on the WhatsApp platform such as restricting the number of forwarded messages one individual can send in a day, labeling of forwarded messages and many more. Whatsapp is also planning to start display ads on its apps the service will start soon.
A step for the same cause was earlier also undertaken in the form of a Radio campaign to create awareness among the users of Whatsapp for the same reasons. This campaign was divided into two phrases. The first was launched on August 29 across 49 Radio Stations with ads of All India Radio(AIR) and the second phase was launched on 5 September across 83 Radio Stations of AIR.
