WhatsApp says its forwarding limits have cut the spread of viral messages by 70 percent

[Windows9]

Quote

The spread of “highly forwarded” messages on WhatsApp has dropped by 70 percent as a result of the company’s new forwarding limits, TechCrunch reports. The new measures were introduced at the beginning of April in response to the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation on the service. The changes meant that any message that’s already been forwarded by five or more people can now only be forwarded to a single person or group.

The news means that WhatsApp’s new limit is successfully slowing down the spread of viral messages, despite the fact that people still have the option of manually forwarding a message to multiple people or groups. However, it’s impossible to know how many of these messages contain the misinformation that WhatsApp is trying to halt, versus how many of them are helpful advice or harmless memes.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/27/21238082/whatsapp-forward-message-limits-viral-misinformation-decline

 

How does whatsapp know if the messages aren't being sent when they are supposed to be encrypted. 

[minibois]

1 minute ago, Windows9 said:

How does whatsapp know if the messages aren't being sent when they are supposed to be encrypted. 

Quote

it’s impossible to know how many of these messages contain the misinformation that WhatsApp is trying to halt, versus how many of them are helpful advice or harmless memes.

Do you read the quotes you post? You had a question at the end of a previous thread of yours that was answered by the quote you posted too.

 

Anyways, I'll forward this information to all of those I know (otherwise I might get 5 years of bad luck!)

[Techstorm970]

Just now, minibois said:

Do you read the quotes you post? You had a question at the end of a previous thread of yours that was answered by the quote you posted too.

 

Anyways, I'll forward this information to all of those I know (otherwise I might get 5 years of bad luck!)

 

FORWARD THIS MESSAGE ON TO EVERYBODY

[williamcll]

Honestly the issue is still more prevalent on email and forums.

[Froody129]

36 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Honestly the issue is still more prevalent on email and forums.

People still forward stuff like this on email? My email is limited to promotion offers from companies which I haven't blocked and actual relevant emails from people.

[Windows9]

@minibois It said WhatsApp could not differentiate between a meme and a viral message, what I am saying is how do they know it is a viral message : it could just be a normal message

[Fetzie]

12 minutes ago, Windows9 said:

@minibois It said WhatsApp could not differentiate between a meme and a viral message, what I am saying is how do they know it is a viral message : it could just be a normal message

I'd imagine that there would be a certain variance to normal messages - misspellings, additional spaces, punctuation, alternative spellings (for example using "s" instead of "z", "ou" instead of "o") or new lines whereas "viral" messages would be identical.

[Windows9]

Just now, Fetzie said:

I'd imagine that there would be a certain variance to normal messages - misspellings, additional spaces, punctuation or new lines whereas "viral" messages would be identical.

But they're encrypted so how would whatsapp know if they're identical

[Fetzie]

1 minute ago, Windows9 said:

But they're encrypted so how would whatsapp know if they're identical

If you write "OMG LOOK AT THIS" and I do too, then the hash of that message will be the same. Plus at some point they will need to be decrypted.

[Windows9]

@Fetzie But everyone has different keys and they're encrypted on the user end. If whatsapp decrypts it for itself then there would be no point of encryption in the first place

[Fetzie]

1 minute ago, Windows9 said:

@Fetzie But everyone has different keys and they're encrypted on the user end. If whatsapp decrypts it for itself then there would be no point of encryption in the first place

And if the message is hashed before being sent and encrypted because it triggers some AI built into the client?

[Windows9]

Just now, Fetzie said:

And if the message is hashed before being sent and encrypted because it triggers some AI built into the client?

IMO AI in the client defeats the purpose of encryption

[Fetzie]

4 minutes ago, Windows9 said:

IMO AI in the client defeats the purpose of encryption

My understanding is that the message is not encrypted until you press "send". The client would therefore have ample opportunity to compare it to "known bad messages" and prevent you from forwarding it to a group.

[Curious Pineapple]

7 minutes ago, Windows9 said:

@Fetzie But everyone has different keys and they're encrypted on the user end. If whatsapp decrypts it for itself then there would be no point of encryption in the first place

The client could be sending a hash of the message to the receiving end to confirm the decrypted message is correct.

[williamcll]

1 hour ago, Froody129 said:

People still forward stuff like this on email? My email is limited to promotion offers from companies which I haven't blocked and actual relevant emails from people.

Yeah, but I guess it's because a lot of email accounts are hacked.

[cj09beira]

platforms shouldn't be publishers.

[AlTech]

4 hours ago, Techstorm970 said:

FORWARD THIS MESSAGE ON TO EVERYBODY

You sir are a legend .

[AlTech]

2 hours ago, Fetzie said:

My understanding is that the message is not encrypted until you press "send". The client would therefore have ample opportunity to compare it to "known bad messages" and prevent you from forwarding it to a group.

Yup.

2 hours ago, Windows9 said:

But they're encrypted so how would whatsapp know if they're identical

WhatsApp is closed source so you just have to trust that they don't make copies of your message before you delete it or anything.

[Curious Pineapple]

32 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

platforms shouldn't be publishers.

But they can and should take measures to prevent the spread of disinformation. If I started sending out messages telling people to move the voltage switch on the PSU from 240 to 110v as it "doubles the power going into the cpu and makes it twice as fast", you can bet that enough people will try it to make it a serious danger. A bunch of people were trolled into yanking their landline junction boxes from the wall as it was "a secret 5G weapon".

 

Remember the microwaved iPhones?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 hours ago, Windows9 said:

@minibois It said WhatsApp could not differentiate between a meme and a viral message, what I am saying is how do they know it is a viral message : it could just be a normal message

AFAIK, they don't, the new rule applies to many message. All they need is a counter that goes with the message and adds 1 when you press "forward". Copy-pasting in a new message would reset the counter in that case. 

 

We still don't know if this is slowing down anything. 70% could simply mean that people now receive the same message 3 times from multiple sources instead of 10, but it still reaches the same number of people, for all we know. 

[Taf the Ghost]

Next Natural Diaster, Facebook is going to low the liability problems they'll cause. Wrong Death Suits do exist. 

 

Also, does this mean that they've been monitoring all of the actual information in the supposedly secure messages?

[colonel_mortis]

4 hours ago, Fetzie said:

If you write "OMG LOOK AT THIS" and I do too, then the hash of that message will be the same. Plus at some point they will need to be decrypted.

FWIW, any secure encryption scheme*, including the encryption scheme used by WhatsApp (the Signal Protocol) does not transmit the hashes of the raw message in plain text, so it isn't possible to see from the ciphertext whether two messages are identical.

 

* In cryptanalysis, the bare minimum security for a cipher, which is called Chosen Plaintext Attack security or CPA, requires that an attacker can't tell whether two encrypted messages have the same or different plaintexts.

[cj09beira]

3 hours ago, Curious Pineapple said:

But they can and should take measures to prevent the spread of disinformation. If I started sending out messages telling people to move the voltage switch on the PSU from 240 to 110v as it "doubles the power going into the cpu and makes it twice as fast", you can bet that enough people will try it to make it a serious danger. A bunch of people were trolled into yanking their landline junction boxes from the wall as it was "a secret 5G weapon".

 

Remember the microwaved iPhones?

you would be in your right to send that message, and people would have to have the responsibility  to think for themselves.

and who defines what disinformation is?, take the current epidemic as an example the WHO where spreading wrong information about how there was no human to human transmission, and how travel shouldn't be stopped, all the while taiwan was warning about it, the "fix" is to listen to the most information possible 

[Tog Driver]

I know a lot of people who use WhatsApp and there is a lot of coronavirus related stuff going around, I’m not sure if it’s forwarded or not though. Because I don’t know what the truth is in this case I don’t know if it’s false information.

[Curious Pineapple]

On 4/27/2020 at 11:55 PM, cj09beira said:

you would be in your right to send that message, and people would have to have the responsibility  to think for themselves.

and who defines what disinformation is?, take the current epidemic as an example the WHO where spreading wrong information about how there was no human to human transmission, and how travel shouldn't be stopped, all the while taiwan was warning about it, the "fix" is to listen to the most information possible 

People don't think for themselves, that's the problem. People also don't understand what they are being told, so they cherry-pick what they can figure out (or what they want to believe) and spread that. The WHO has also changed their advice as understanding of the virus increased, science does that, viral messages containing bullshit don't.

 

By the way, if you think spreading dangerous and potentially lethal advice to people who don't, and dont need to know better should be a "right", then you are very mistaken. That thinking is causing outbreaks of measles and other preventable illnesses.