The spread of viral information which sometimes it is not true, WhatsApp has introduced one new feature that will greatly help in curbing the spread of viral misinformation whereby it will identify the original source of the message.
The WhatsApp users can easily see a ‘forwarded’ message label at the top of every message that is not the owners original content.
The news feature move by WhatsApp is to help the continuous process of fight against news which is fake especially on social media platforms. However, the new feature message label will not necessarily show 'forwarded' if the message was copy-pasted.
The newly introduced feature is found only in the latest WhatsApp version. President Uhuru Kenyatta on May 2018, signed a Computer and Cybercrimes Bill which helps to curb the spread and sharing of false information.
In the face of the law, any person who publishes intentionally false, fictitious or misleading data or misinforms with the intention that the data shall be acted upon or considered as authentic, without or with financial gain, commits a cyber offence and shall be, on conviction, be held liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or a fine not exceeding Sh 5 million, or to both of them.
Godfrey Osotsi the ICT Expert, the new law will firmly deal with cybercrime and cyberbullying incidents in the country.
“Cybercrime is real and cybercrime is big; it is estimated that annually the whole world losses about Sh60 trillion: the crime is real and the law ought to have been in place like yesterday,” he said.