WhatsApp starts testing Suspicious Link Detection feature to curb spread of fake news

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WhatsApp has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons lately. The Facebook-owned instant messaging app has been in headlines for spreading fake or misinformed news, which led to the lynching of innocents in India. After the recent lynching incidents, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked WhatsApp to take measures to control the spread of fake news via its platform. WhatsApp is reportedly working on the IT Ministry's order. The popular messaging platform is testing a new feature called the Suspicious Link Detection where it will inform users if the link that they received from their friends is suspicious or not. With this initiative, WhatsApp expects to bring down the spread of fake news among the masses, and in turn incidents of lynching.

The Suspicious Link Detection feature is reportedly in its testing stage. According to WABetaInfo, the new Suspicious Link Detection feature comes with the Android beta version 2.18.204 and later. With the new feature, WhatsApp will analyse all the links received as a message and detect the suspicious ones, a report from WABetainfo claims.

The new Suspicious Link Detection feature apparently automatically identifies whether the link received as a message fake or alternative website is suspicious or not. The messaging app will detect all links that are redirecting to a fake or alternate website which would harm the user.

Upon detecting the suspicious link, WhatsApp will then mark the link with a red label (as shown in the screenshot below). This will let users easily understand the difference between a fake and genuine link.

According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp will warn the users with a message about a suspicious link. The message will read as follows: "This link contains unusual characters. It may be trying to appear as another site." The report also suggests that WhatsApp will analyse the suspicious link locally, meaning the link will not be sent to the servers of WhatsApp, This means that users data won't be compromised.

The report also reveals that WhatsApp will also bring a new feature that will let users manually report a suspicious link on the platform.

The Suspicious Link Detection feature, as reported by WABetaInfo, is currently in its testing stage. Some reports claim that the feature is available in beta, while some reports suggest that it is yet to roll out. Now that IT Ministry wants WhatsApp to take measures to curb the spread of fake news as soon as possible the feature may roll out very soon, probably in the next few days or so.

Currently, reports claim that the new feature is being tested for Android only, but chances are after Android the feature will hit both iOS and Windows platform too.