Facebook's WhatsApp Explores Using Google To Fight Misinformation (venturebeat.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: WhatsApp is working on a major new feature to tackle the spread of misinformation on its service. The Facebook-owned chat app is internally testing a new option that would allow a user to quickly verify the legitimacy of images they have received on WhatsApp by checking if those images had ever appeared on the web before. [...] The unnamed feature relies on Google's reverse image search function to let WhatsApp users upload an image and find where it has appeared on the web. This is a clever solution by WhatsApp, which protects all messages and media content on its platform with end-to-end encryption. While hugely beneficial to end users, using encryption also significantly curtails WhatsApp's ability to scan the content of messages and media on its platform. In emerging markets, users are exhibiting a growing appetite for sharing information through images. In places like India, WhatsApp's largest market and where the service is grappling with the spread of false information, the feature could potentially help many users quickly verify facts and get more context about the image they have received.

Comments

Good precedent.

[fenrif]

Whatsapp is a messaging service. I don't want my messaging service telling me what their opinion is on the things I am discussing. Why do you care if people spread "misinformation?" If I want to learn more about something I can search for it myself. I don't need you getting involved. And especially not Facebook of all people. I can't wait untill Zuckerberg and his ilk are expunged from the public discourse entirely. I don't need billionaire multinational corperations telling me what is true or not. I wouldn't trust them to tell me what colour the sky is, let alone give me the "facts" on complex political or cultural matters.