Messenger messages can only be forwarded to 5 people now. Facebook Messenger is one of the most used messagging apps globally. Messaging apps are a potential content distribution weapon when it comes to spreading some fake news. In order to reduce the latter, the service will now limit message forwarding to 5 people. As indicated by Facebook with an official announcement, they have decided to take this measure to a limit. They see the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content that has the potential to cause harm in the real world. They emphasize that this may be critical with the current global pandemic situation and elections in countries such as the United States or New Zealand in the coming weeks.
Therefore, from now on the forwarding of a message, photograph, video or any other element is limited. You can forward a message to five people at max. When trying to select more, a message appears indicating that the limit has been reached
A measure that has already proven its effectiveness
This measure taken on Facebook Messenger has already proven its effectiveness, according to Facebook. They have done the same with some other Facebook messaging app: WhatsApp already in January 2019. Messenger messages can only be forwarded to 5 people now, same as WhatsApp.
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Additionally, WhatsApp has integrated other tools to reduce the spread of information that may be fake. One of the most effective ways to prevent it to use the buttor to make a search on Google to understand if a message or photograph is real. This allows us faster access to real information.
Does it work? Apparently, and according to Facebook said, yes. This year on April, they indicated that the limitation of forwarding on WhatsApp caused a 70% drop in the number of forwarded viral messages. But that includes both fake and true messages. They experiment the same thing on another popular messaging app Messenger messages can only be forwarded to 5 people now.
