The link above is for the petition
Here is the letter:
Our Letter To WhatsApp:
WhatsApp needs to implement these product changes during polling days and in the month before and the month after elections:
- Add friction to forwarding messages: Reduce the ease with which messages can be forwarded on the platform by adding one additional step which nudges users to pause and reflect before they forward content.
- Add disinformation warning labels to viral content: Automatically add clear “Highly forwarded: please verify” warning labels to viral messages, in addition to the “forwarded many times” label currently in use.
- Reduce WhatsApp’s broadcast capabilities: Disable the Communities feature and also limit the size of broadcast lists to 50 people and cap their usage to twice a day.
Without decisive action from WhatsApp, disinformation attacks will likely scale up in 2024, aimed at manipulating and undermining elections affecting half of the world’s population. WhatsApp must act to change its product to protect election integrity.
“Please verify” is not enough of a red flag to overcome confirmation bias. People have to be reminded to seek disconfirming evidence. “Highly forwarded link is likely propaganda, consider the writers motivations and other views on the subject.”
A downside to a statement like this would be the ‘crying wolf’ effect. If that message pops up on information they know to be true, where it’s being shared because it is important or relevant, then people are less likely to care.
A neutral message would help prevent that
Tough one to get right, isn’t it? I take your point, but I fear the power of confirmation bias might be too great.
Whatsapp link previews are rendered at meta servers. They could display any propaganda or fake news warnings they wanted on those previews.
The fact that we’re having to ask Meta nicely to not screw up our elections after everything they’ve done is pretty dire straits. It’s a nice gesture from Mozilla, anyway.