Mumbai: WhatsApp on Tuesday launched a service for Indians to check the veracity of information, in the messaging platform's latest attempt to combat fake news in India ahead of national elections beginning this month. WhatsApp said in a statement it was working with local startup Proto to classify messages sent to the service by users as true, false, misleading or disputed. Major Indian political parties have accused each other of propagating fake news on WhatsApp while denying they do so themselves. "The challenge of viral misinformation requires more collaborative efforts and cannot be solved by any one organisation alone," WhatsApp said. Reuters received a message on WhatsApp containing false information and forwarded it to the service around 0640 GMT.

Source: Mint April 02, 2019 06:48 UTC