There is no one reviewing or censoring the content of your WhatsApp messages: 11 questions and answers

It is one more hoax in a campaign in which we have had more than 400 denials and now it is our turn to suffer . We explain it to you. And we ask for your support. Share.

Is content being censored on WhatsApp?

Neither content is being removed, nor is anyone else; No entity or person is controlling, verifying or censoring what messages you send on WhatsApp. There are no people standing behind seeing what is or is not real. The novelty of WhatsApp is a limitation on the number of people to whom you can forward a message that has been forwarded more than 5 times before it reached you, regardless of its content. In a statement Whatsapp points out that «The new global forwarding limit was implemented by WhatsApp to keep the service personal and private, and to reduce the spread of viral messages, with the aim of keeping our users safe. It is not related in any way with verification organizations or ‘censorship’, and any statement suggesting otherwise is 100% false.»

What does this WhatsApp measure consist of?

WhatsApp has taken a measure to reduce the spread of any type of content that has been forwarded more than 5 times before reaching you. It is not a restriction to some content and no to others. 

WhatsApp limits the forwarding of those messages that have already been forwarded more than 5 times before they reach you and thus «restrict the viralization» of some of them that could be spreading misinformation, especially in the current context of the coronavirus emergency. . Therefore, some messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time and not to several at a time.

Does WhatsApp’s measure affect only political content?

As we tell you, no. It is not directed at political content but at all types of content that has been forwarded more than 5 times before it reached you. It is not a restriction to some content and not to others because in addition neither the platform nor anyone other than the sender and receiver of the message can see the content of a message. The company points out in its statement that «this limit is applied automatically and has no relation to the content of the message – which WhatsApp neither sees, moderates, nor censors – because all WhatsApp messages and calls are protected with  extreme encryption. to extreme .»

Why do you let me forward some messages and not others?

WhatsApp catalogs forwarded messages into two types: those that a contact has sent you but that have not previously been forwarded many times, which we can see with a small arrow above it, and those that, before reaching your mobile, have been forwarded at least five times. more times. These are accompanied by a double arrow label that also «indicates that they were not created by a close contact» and, therefore, it is unlikely that they came from your list of contacts (whom you will at least get to know a little more about).

This last category is the one that WhatsApp is limiting with its new rule. Until now, all forwarded messages could be forwarded to up to five contacts at a time. This was one of the first measures that the messaging network took to prevent content that could be false from going viral, and now it goes one step further by limiting it to only one at a time if it has been forwarded more than 5 times previously. 

Can WhatsApp see the content of my messages?

According to WhatsApp, messages are encrypted and therefore only the sender and receiver can see their content : no one reads what you send or receive and, therefore, no one can censor it. 

Due to end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp, the company ensures that only you and the recipient can read what is sent, and that no one else, not even WhatsApp, can do so. All of this happens automatically, without the need to activate settings or create special secret chats to secure your messages. End-to-end encryption is always on. There is no way to disable or turn off end-to-end encryption.

Is this measure only in Spain?

Limiting forwarding is one of the measures that WhatsApp has implemented worldwide to limit the forwarding of those messages that have already been forwarded more than 5 times and thus «restrict the viralization» of some of them that could be spreading misinformation , especially in the current context of the coronavirus emergency. 

Is the government censoring content on WhatsApp?

The Government has nothing to do with this: it is a global decision by the company and it is an automatic WhatsApp process.

Is Maldita.es or someone verifying for WhatsApp? Why is there a WhatsApp page where your number appears?

We are not verifying content for WhatsApp: we do not have access to the content that is going viral. Our number appears in the WhatsApp FAQs , along with dozens of other fact-checkers around the world as a recommendation of where you can check “if the data you receive seems suspicious or inaccurate.” All organizations that appear on that list are signatories to the Code of Principles of the International Fact-checking Network (IFCN). It is a recommendation that WhatsApp makes so that you consult verifiers who belong to the International Fact Checking Network. WhatsApp tells you that if the data you receive seems suspicious or inaccurate, we “recommend” you verify it with these official IFCN Information Verification Organizations. And give our phone numbers. That’s where it all ends. We do not verify for WhatsApp.

What is the International Fact-checking Network (IFCN)?

The International Fact-checking Network is an organization committed to excellence in journalistic verification processes that monitors, worldwide, that the teams that dedicate themselves to this do so in compliance with a series of deontological principles that guarantee the impartiality and professionalism of their denials. 

To be signatories of its Code of Principles and belong to this alliance, Maldita.es each year passes an exam in which an independent advisor evaluates our compliance with said Code of Principles, and subsequently this evaluation is ratified by the Advisory Council of the IFCN. 

Here you can read more about the Code of Principles and the entities that belong to the IFCN worldwide.  

What is Maldita.es doing on WhatsApp?

We have a telephone number where you can contact us about that possible hoax that you receive: 655198538 . You send us the content that seems suspicious to you and we carry out a verification according to our methodology and subsequently publish it on our website. This verification that we do in no way affects the content that circulates on WhatsApp: it neither eliminates it, nor censors it, nor anything. We do not have any type of access to WhatsApp, we can only deny on our website the content that users send us. 

Additionally, here you can sign up to receive a list of what we have denied that we send every afternoon. 

What does Maldita.es do on Facebook?

In March 2019, Maldita.es reached an agreement with Facebook on the Third Party Verification Program : an initiative that Facebook launched after the rise of misinformation in the 2016 US elections to combat hoaxes circulating within its platform. . Since then, the program has been launched in dozens of countries in collaboration with verification teams certified by the International Fact-Checking Network .
Maldita.es, like other verifiers in our country such as Newtral and AFP , verifies content within the platform according to our methodology . Subsequently, it is Facebook that carries out a series of measures that in no case involve the deletion of said content. You can read more about this program here .