WhatsApp Will Award Researchers Up To $50,000 To Curb Fake News, Rumours

WhatsApp has once more come under burn past the Indian authorities for existence the app used to spread imitation news and misleading rumors in various parts of the country. The company had already stated that information technology is taking the warning seriously and has started to prefer measures to curb the influx of the same.

WhatsApp is known to be testing a set of new features such every bit spam and suspicious link detection to circumvent the spread of fake rumors. It has also launched a contest chosen 'WhatsApp Research Awards for Social Science and Misinformation.'

WhatsApp says researchers tin can nowadays proposals of what the visitor tin do to solve the problem of faux news and rumours leading to lynchings. The incentive here is that information technology will provide awards of up to $fifty,000 in funding for the selected proposals.

WhatsApp Will Award Researchers Up To $50,000 To Curb Fake News, Rumours — Image: WABetaInfo

WhatsApp has been the centre of controversy afterward multiple cases of mob lynching emerged from rumors circulated on WhatsApp. In an official statement, WhatsApp had said that, "WhatsApp cares about the safety of our users and is seeking to inform our agreement of the safety issues people see on WhatsApp and what more we can exercise inside WhatsApp and in partnership with civil society to address the trouble."

The messaging giant haslaunched the showtime phase of the contest and is now accepting research proposals from any of the following areas of expertise – data processing of problematic content, election-related info, network effects and virality, digital literacy and misinformation, along with detection of problematic behavior while following the principles of encryption.

WhatsApp farther goes on to say that each awardee will agree the intellectual property (IP) to their data and analysis. The visitor will only provide help and the awardee will develop conceptual tools, gathers and analyzes information, and/or investigates relevant bug.