New Delhi: On April 2, messaging platform WhatsApp launched a tip line called Checkpoint in India to fight misinformation spreading through the app. To use the tip line, anyone can forward a message – which can be text, an image, a link or a video in English, Hindi, Telugu, Bengali or Malayalam – to the number +91-9643000888.You then receive a message asking you to confirm (by replying ‘1’) if you want the previous message verified. The tip line will tell you if the message is true, false, misleading, disputed, or presently unverifiable as it’s out of scope, according to The Next Web.The tip line will be run from Delhi by the startup Proto, which is conducting a study on how fake news travels through WhatsApp. The organisation will be sharing its finding with the International Centre for Journalists, so that other media organisations and government can learn from it.But is this ‘tip line’ really a helpline that will help the average Indian sift real information from fake news? Not quite. Multiple reports have revealed that the primary purpose of the exercise is research – and not to help users.Also read | Ahead of Elections, Indians Concerned About Misinformation: Pew ResearchProto has said in the FAQs published on its website that Checkpoint is being used “only as a means to collect information that is otherwise inaccessible given the nature of private messaging”. The “tipline is primarily used to gather data for research, and not a helpline that will be able to provide a response to every user,” according to the startup.This has been confirmed by journalists – BuzzFeed News reporters sent several messages for verification and received no confirmation for more than 24 hours.It is now clear that Proto’s work is much more long-term – it aims to understand how misinformation spreads rather than tackle fake news in the run-up to the 2019 elections. However, the confusion (or misinformation?) on the project’s aim can be attributed to none other than WhatsApp itself. It had said while launching Checkpoint that the tip line initiative would “help contribute to the safety of the elections … and deter people from sharing rumours that have no basis in fact.”Even with that aim, not all were convinced that Checkpoint would be able to achieve its desired curb on misinformation. Rema Rajeshwari, the police chief in Telangana, told The World that several people think Checkpoint is too little, too late. “Some are not quite happy about this step because they are criticising it as a very feeble attempt to fight fake news. They say it’s too little and too late because we barely have 10 days to go for the national elections and the amount of fake news which is already in circulation is quite enormous,” she said.Facebook, which owns the messaging service, has been grappling with its portals being used for spreading misinformation, particularly ahead of elections, across the world. In India, WhatsApp has also been used to circulate rumours that have led to violence and mob killings, including a series of mob lynchings based on rumours around child abductions.To counter this, the app has limited the number of people you can forward a message to to five. In addition, forwarded messages are demarcated as such – so you know whether the message you’re reading has come from someone other than the person who sent it to you.
