In India election season is at the pinnacle with all the political parties in the middle of the campaign. Before Lok Sabha Elections, there is a "problem" that is affecting voters is the spread of fake news on social networks. To address this problem of fake news, WhatsApp messaging platform, owned by Facebook, has launched a new feature on Tuesday called " Checkpoint Tipline ", where people can verify the authenticity of the information received while the messaging giant tries to stop the false news.
"Launched by PROTO, an India-based media skilling startup, this tipline will help create a database of rumours to study misinformation during elections for Checkpoint – a research project commissioned and technically assisted by WhatsApp," the Facebook-owned company said in a statement.
"Starting today, people in India can submit uncertain information or rumours they have received to the Checkpoint Tipline on WhatsApp +91-9643-000-888," the Facebook-owned firm said in a statement.
Once a WhatsApp user shares a suspicious message with the tipline, PROTO's verification centre will seek to respond and inform the user if the claim made in message shared is verified or not.
"The response will indicate if information is classified as true, false, misleading, disputed or out of scope and include any other related information that is available," the statement said.
This centre is equipped to review content in the form of pictures, video links or text and will cover English and four regional languages – Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam.
PROTO will also encourage grass-roots organisations to submit rumours circulating across different regions in India during the election period.
