Whatsapp monitoring: FB moots 'prospective' solution, fails to appease govt

The issue of traceability has been a flashpoint between the government and WhatsApp.

Facebook global executive Nick Clegg has proposed a "prospective" mechanism for WhatsApp to act on cases flagged by law enforcement agencies, but the government has refused to budge on its demand for traceability of messages.

The issue of traceability has been a flashpoint between the government and WhatsApp, and the Facebook-owned messaging platform has so far resisted India's demand for identification of message originators, arguing that doing so would undermine its policy on privacy and end-to-end encryption.

A senior government official told PTI that Facebook Vice-President, Global Affairs and Communications, Nick Clegg, during his meeting with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last week mooted alternatives to absolute traceability of messages, including use of 'meta data' and machine intelligence for dealing with the issue, even offering to harness WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook linkages to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies.

When contacted, a Facebook spokesperson said: "Facebook cares deeply about the safety of people in India and Nick's meetings this week provided opportunities to discuss our commitment to supporting privacy and security in every app we provide and how we can continue to work productively with the Government of India towards these shared goals."

A person aware of WhatsApps's position on the matter emphasised that the platform cannot read messages exchanged as they are encrypted.

It is learnt that Clegg in meetings with top authorities, including Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as well as IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on September 12, reiterated the US tech giant's stance that it will abide by any lawful request for information by the Indian government, but it cannot read messages exchanged on its platforms.

Clegg told the officials that the company can provide 'signals' and meta data such as who calls were made to and duration, among others, of lawfully identified users, a source said.

Business Standard

Alarming lessons from Facebook's effort to stop fake news in India

Particularly challenging for would-be fact-checkers, from Facebook Inc. to Google, is the country's 23 official languages.

Business Standard : The world's largest election has become something of a test case in how technology giants handle fake news after years of scandal. It’s not working out so well.

India has as many as 900 million voters in an election that culminates this week, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling coalition headed for apparent victory.

Particularly challenging for would-be fact-checkers, from Facebook Inc. to Google, is the country’s 23 official languages. Facebook has hired contractors to verify content in 10 of those languages, but those staffers are spread thin and posts in more than a dozen other languages -- Sindhi, Odia and Kannada among them -- are completely unvetted.

Mishra has seen the scale of the challenge first-hand. The manager at Vishvas News, Facebook’s largest Indian-language fact-checking contractor, spent two weeks recently talking with internet users in small cities. She found most people are so new to social media they have no clue about bogus content. They share stories indiscriminately, with stupefying speed. “Being the ‘first’ to share things in their circles gave them a rush,” she says.

Facebook, Twitter Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. are discovering the harsh reality that disinformation and hate speech are even more challenging in emerging markets than in places like the U.S. or Europe. A new category of users, recently digital, believe almost whatever they receive -- especially if it comes from family or friends. Hundreds of millions read in languages the American tech giants haven’t even begun to monitor.

“Disinformation is spreading like wildfire in these parallel digital universes,” said Bharat Gupta, chief executive officer of Jagran New Media, which runs Vishvas News. “It’s a dark space that nobody talks about.”

About 90% of internet users coming online today are non-English speakers, often with more trusting attitudes than experienced surfers. In one Hindi example, a phony Facebook post for job vacancies at the subway train company in the city of Jaipur asked those interested to send personal details. Within hours, about 20,000 had responded with names, emails and phone numbers.

Efforts to monitor native languages have gotten off to a slow start. Social networks, messaging apps and content aggregators have started drafting community guidelines, automated tools are being built, and in-house content moderation teams created. Facebook is the first to make a commercial commitment, getting a jump on foreign rivals.

Part of too many unwanted Whatsapp groups? Now you can control who adds you

With the new privacy setting for groups, users will have the option to set the privacy settings to either nobody, my contacts or everyone.

Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp on April 4 introduced a privacy setting for groups on its platform, providing users control on who can add them to groups. WhatsApp had been testing this feature under beta program, and from Wednesday onwards it will roll it out to all users in batches as an app update.

Until now, anyone available on WhatsApp had the option to create a group and add anyone from the list of contacts. With the new privacy setting for groups, users will have the option to set the privacy settings to either nobody, my contacts or everyone.

Nobody means you will be sent an invite to join a group, but you will not be added until you approve. My contact setting allows people in your WhatsApp contact list to add you in a group.

Here are the steps to check or enable the new privacy settings for groups:

Step 1: Update the WhatsApp app

Step 2: Open the app and go to settings

Step 3: In Settings, click on account, then privacy, then Whatsapp groups

Step 4: Tick on the radio box next to nobody, my contacts or everyone to change the settings, and you are done

Enabling nobody in privacy settings for a group would prompt the person inviting you to the group to send a private invite through an individual chat, giving you the option of joining the group. The invite will be valid for three days, before it expires and automatically rejects the invite request.

Business Standard

Google ups efforts to check misinformation ahead of Lok Sabha elections

Google is also going to launch its political ad transparency report before Indian elections, scheduled to begin on April 11.

Not just Facebook and Twitter, Google is also making an effort to ensure the authenticity of information on its advertisements and video platform as India heads towards General Elections in less than a month.

On Thursday, the company said it is ensuring authoritative news content gets better play on YouTube, where videos have seen growth in watch time triple for content from authoritative sources in the last two years, said Tim Katz, the video platform’s director of news partnerships.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is ensuring there is news from credible sources that is put on the platform, with enough context.

With elections less than a month away, the Indian government has been trying to address the issue of misinformation and fake news spreading through social media and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. Recently, the Parliamentary Committee on information technology met with senior executives of Facebook and Twitter and the Election Commission has also said social media platforms have committed to help check the spread of fake news in the run up to elections.

The video platform has introduced fact checks to its panels in India, just below the search results, which relies on and "open ecosystem of publishers and fact checking experts".It is currently available in Engligh and will shortly be available in Hindi.

The "Top News" and "Breaking News" sections on YouTube highlight videos from credible news sources in search results and during major news events globally.

Google has partnered with an open source community schema.org, which provides news organisations with a tool called ClaimReview markup that helps put "markers" on fact-checked news reports. Google's systems then decide whether the content would be useful to users and should show in search results, based on relevancy and several other factors.

"A publisher writes a fact-checking story on their own website, then they take this tool... (which is) like a developer tool, and can put annotations on to their article. Its like metadata for their articles. And this allows third parties like Google to scan that metadata and understand when was this written, what was the topic, how did they research it, how were they able to verify the veracity of their claim," said Katz.

He added that YouTube was working towards the future of online video by working with news organisations and developing product features for news on its platform.

Article Source BS

Unclear understanding of 'unlawful content' may end up curbing free speech

When the government decides to systematically intrude upon the private lives of its citizens, the line between the personal and the political no longer remains clear.

The information technology ministry this week reportedly proposed an amendment to rules under section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

The amendment would necessitate intermediaries under the IT Act to proactively identify and take action against unlawful content or information online.

This move, unsurprisingly, follows a notice issued to WhatsApp in July 2018, warning it against ‘abetting’ fake news as a ‘mute spectator’ through its end-to-end encryption technology, which could potentially invite legal action.

The Information Technology [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment)] Rules 2018 will insert a new rule 3(5), introducing traceability on online platforms, breaking this encryption in order to retain information including messages on WhatsApp.

The proposed amendment will also require intermediaries to coordinate and respond to government queries within 72 hours in case it is directed through an appointed nodal authority in order to ensure compliance with the law.

What to regulate – the fake news conundrum

Amid concerns raised by the judiciary and civil society about fake news on social media, the government has intervened to trace the origins of such content which deliberate misleads or misinforms public opinion.

The proposed amendment, however, falls short on several counts.

Without a clear understanding of what speech is ‘unlawful’, the amendment enables agencies to target groups and individuals based on mere suspicion and without confirming if the content is actually illegal. While Article 19(2) lays down reasonable restrictions on free speech, the understanding of fake news within free speech jurisprudence remains murky.

If the proposed purpose is to weed out fake news, it is imperative to first attempt to define or characterise it, rather than to preemptively censor speech. The large-scale implementation of this decision may lead to self-censorship and the muzzling of dissent, completely antithetical to democratic practice.

The proposed amendment, in this regard, seems to put the cart before the horse.

Who should regulate online content?

Beyond inquiring into what content the government intends to regulate, one needs to contemplate – who should regulate harmful content? Before the proposed amendment is given effect, there is a need to determine whether permitting government agencies to examine content is more desirable than self-regulation by intermediaries themselves.

Business Standard

Twitter gives users more freedom to report fake, suspicious account

The new tool unveiled by Twitter is the latest step that the social media site has taken to combat malicious activities on its platform.

Twitter has said that it is giving its users more freedom to report fake, suspicious accounts to intensify crackdown on online spamming activities a few days ahead of US midterms elections.

Twitter announced the new measure through its official safety account by saying that it will not allow any attempts to manipulate or disrupt its service, which came shortly before the US midterm elections are to take place on November 6, Xinhua news agency reported.

"You can now specify what type of spam you're seeing when you report, including fake accounts," Twitter Safety@TwitterSafety said in a tweeted post on Wednesday.

Twitter will allow users to flag tweets as originating from a fake account or a bot which are impersonating as something or someone else, and mark them as "fake".

The new tool unveiled by Twitter is the latest step that the social media site has taken to combat malicious activities on its platform.

Twitter said in July that it had purged about 70 million accounts in May and June of this year for conducting spamming or malicious behaviour.

Business Standard

How the latest technology and some healthy activism can curb fake news

The main take away from our research is that when it comes to preventing the spread of fake news, privacy is key.

The term “fake news” has become ubiquitous over the past two years. The Cambridge English dictionary defines it as “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke”.

As part of a global push to curb the spread of deliberate misinformation, researchers are trying to understand what drives people to share fake news and how its endorsement can propagate through a social network.

But humans are complex social animals, and technology misses the richness of human learning and interactions.

That’s why we decided to take a different approach in our research. We used the latest techniques from artificial intelligence to study how support for – or opposition to – a piece of fake news can spread within a social network. We believe our model is more realistic than previous approaches because individuals in our model learn endogenously from their interactions with the environment and not just follow prescribed rules. Our novel approach allowed us to learn a number of new things about how fake news is spread.

The main take away from our research is that when it comes to preventing the spread of fake news, privacy is key. It is important to keep your personal data to yourself and be cautious when providing information to large social media websites or search engines.

The most recent wave of technological innovations has brought us the data-centric web 2.0 and with it a number of fundamental challenges to user privacy and the integrity of news shared in social networks. But as our research shows, there’s reason to be optimistic that technology, paired with a healthy dose of individual activism, might also provide solutions to the scourge of fake news.

Modelling human behaviour

Existing literature models the spread of fake news in a social network in one of two ways.

In the first instance, you could model what happens when people observe what their neighbours do and then use this information in a complicated calculation to optimally update their beliefs about the world.

The second approach assumes that people follow a simple majority rule: everyone does what most of their neighbours do....Read More

Article Source BS

WhatsApp tweaks message forwarding options in India to curb toxic rumours

The Facebook-owned platform will be limiting forwards of photos, videos and messages to five chats in India and remove the quick forward button next to media messages.

A day after the government issued a second notice to WhatsApp to check fake news, the instant messaging platform tweaked forwarding options on Friday.

The Facebook-owned platform will be limiting forwards of photos, videos and messages to five chats in India and remove the quick forward button next to media messages.

In a blog post, WhatsApp said, “Today, we're launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone using WhatsApp. In India - where people forward more messages, photos, and videos than any other country in the world - we'll also test a lower limit of 5 chats at once and we'll remove the quick forward button next to media messages.”

The messaging platform has been facing government flak after the viral circulation of messages and videos on WhatsApp led to the lynchings of many people.

The government had on Thursday issued a second notice to WhatsApp demanding more stringent solution to check fake news as the measures taken the instant messaging platform has not addressed the problem adequately.

The government even warned WhatsApp of legal action and if it did not take necessary actions.

WhatsApp said it believes the fresh changes - which the company continue to evaluate - will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app.

“We are deeply committed to your safety and privacy which is why WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, and we'll continue to improve our app with features like this one,” WhatsApp said.

The platform had added a feature that lets people forward a message to multiple chats at once. However, this feature was misused for spreading rumours which led to many instances of lynchings.

Article Source BS

Facebook cracks the whip, to remove bogus posts that could spark violence

Hate speech and threats deemed credible are violations of Facebook rules.

Facebook Policy : Facebook has built on its campaign to prevent the platform from being used to spread dangerous misinformation, saying it will remove bogus posts likely to spark violence.

The new tactic being spread through the global social network was tested in Sri Lanka, which was recently rocked by inter-religious over false information posted on the world's leading online social network.

"There are certain forms of misinformation that have contributed to physical harm, and we are making a policy change which will enable us to take that type of content down," a Facebook spokesman said after a briefing on the policy at the company's campus in Silicon Valley.

"We will begin implementing the policy during the coming months." For example, Facebook may remove inaccurate or misleading content, such as doctored photos, created or shared to stir up volatile situations in the real world.

The social network said it is partnering with local organisations and authorities adept at identifying when posts are false and likely to prompt violence. Misinformation removed in Sri Lanka under the new policy included content falsely contending that Muslims were poisoning food given or sold to Buddhists, according to Facebook.

Hate speech and threats deemed credible are violations of Facebook rules, and are removed.

The new policy takes another step back, eliminating content that may not be explicitly violent but which seems likely to encourage such behaviour.

Facebook has been lambasted for allowing rumours or blatantly false information to circulate that may have contributed to violence.

Many see Facebook as being used as a vehicle for spreading false information in recent years.

Facebook has implemented a series of changes aimed at fighting use of the social network to spread misinformation, from fabrications that incite violence to untruths that sway elections.

Article Source BS

YouTube to crack down on fake news by using 'authoritative' sources

In the wake of breaking news events when misinformation can spread quickly, YouTube will begin showing users short text previews of news stories in video search results.

Google's YouTube says it is taking several steps to ensure the veracity of news on its service by cracking down on misinformation and supporting news organisations.

The company said on Monday that it will make "authoritative" news sources more prominent, especially in the wake of breaking news events when misinformation can spread quickly.

At such times, YouTube will begin showing users short text previews of news stories in video search results, as well as warnings that the stories can change. The goal is to counter the fake videos that can proliferate immediately after shootings, natural disasters and other major happenings.

For example, YouTube search results prominently showed videos purporting to "prove" that mass shootings like the one that killed at least 59 in Las Vegas were fake, acted out by "crisis actors."

In these urgent cases, traditional video won't do, since it takes time for news outlets to produce and verify high-quality clips. So YouTube aims to short-circuit the misinformation loop with text stories that can quickly provide more accurate information. Company executives announced the effort at YouTube's New York offices.

Those officials, however, offered only vague descriptions of which sources YouTube will consider authoritative. Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said the company isn't just compiling a simple list of trusted news outlets, noted that the definition of authoritative is "fluid" and then added the caveat that it won't simply boil down to sources that are popular on YouTube.

He added that 10,000 human reviewers at Google, so-called search quality raters who monitor search results around the world, are helping determine what will count as authoritative sources and news stories.

Alexios Mantzarlis, a Poynter Institute faculty member who helped Facebook team up with fact-checkers (including The Associated Press), said the text story snippet at the top of search results was "cautiously a good step forward."

But he worried what would happen to fake news videos that were simply recommended by YouTube's recommendation engine and would appear in feeds without being searched.

He said it would be preferable if Google used people instead of algorithms to vet fake news.

"Facebook was reluctant to go down that path two and half years ago and then they did," he said.

YouTube also said it will commit $25 million over the next several years to improving news on YouTube and tackling "emerging challenges" such as misinformation. That sum includes funding to help news organisations around the world build "sustainable video operations," such as by training staff and improving production facilities. The money would not fund video creation.

The company is also testing ways to counter conspiracy videos with generally trusted sources such as Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica.

For common conspiracy subjects, what YouTube delicately calls "well-established historical and scientific topics that have often been subject to misinformation," such as the moon landing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Google will add information from such third parties for users who search on these topics.

Story By BS

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How this cop is saving lives by fighting fake news spread on Whatsapp

With an election due in 2019, some worry a surge of fake, politicised messages could lead to more violence, stoking broader Hindu-Muslim tensions and sparking religious riots.

Local musicians are already singing about the evils of fake news when police superintendent Rema Rajeshwari’s convoy rolls up to the dusty village square in one of India’s poorest communities. "Don’t believe these things," a performer cries out to the crowd.


In a dark blue cap and stiff khaki uniform, Rajeshwari climbs onto a makeshift stage in front of hundreds of villagers. She’s there to try and stop the spread of bogus WhatsApp messages in her district that warn of child kidnappers and roving murderers.


Across India, social media rumors have caused rural villagers to patrol in anxious groups on the look-out for anyone they don’t recognize. These mobs have already killed numerous people. In May and June alone, at least six people died in WhatsApp-related mob attacks in eastern Assam, western Maharashtra and southern Tamil Nadu. There’s also simmering tensions over Hindu vigilante groups who’ve targeted and killed Muslims.


"You see these messages, these photos and videos, but you don’t check if they’re real or fake, you just forward them," Rajeshwari tells them. "Don’t spread these messages. And when strangers come to your village, don’t take the law into your hands. Don’t kill them."


With an election due in 2019, some worry a surge of fake, politicized messages could lead to more violence, stoking broader Hindu-Muslim tensions and sparking religious riots. The stakes are already high -- Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is facing declining support, while opposition parties are planning to combine forces to take him on. Rajeshwari said she saw a spike in messages around recent state elections in the neighboring state of Karnataka, and fears more ahead of national polls.

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