With evidence of the platform being used to spead lies on an industrial scale in other countries, and 1.5 bn users globally, encrypted fake news now emerges as a major problem.
The difference with Facebook (which owns WhatsApp but lets it run as a separate business) is that no algorithm decides which content is shown to users, and outside companies cannot buy adverts. Discussion and digital content exchanges happen within private groups, using end-to-end encryption. Thus no one – not even the creators of the app – can intercept and monitor what is going on.
