Situation:

Misinformation is a huge problem around the world. But during the COVID 19 pandemic, this problem becomes even more serious and detrimental.

Brief:

How to prevent the spread of misinformation shared on WhatsApp.

Objectives / Project Scale:

With over 2 billion users on our platform, WhatsApp was responsible for keeping them safe from the spread of misinformation and while keeping them updated about the credibility of news, articles, links, frequently forwarded messages etc. shared on WhatsApp.

For our brand is crucial to make sure the information shared on our platform is trust worth it.

And being a brand with more than 2 billions users it is also a Social responsibilities with the World in general.

While WhatsApp is encrypted and no one, including WhatsApp can see what our users message inside the app, we can gather the data when a message is forwarded too many times to contribute to spread of misinformation—another pandemic within the COVID 19 pandemic.

To stop the spread of misinfo through frequently forwarded messages that WhatsApp didn’t have the access to, our strategy was to give our users a tool that would use those very messages to debunk the misinfo. We did this by giving users the tool to check the credibility of a forward message they received and want to forward again.

2 billions users inside the WhatsApp app

Business impact – sales, donations, site traffic

Response rate

Change in behaviour