Facebook adds forwarding limit to curb misinformation

The new feature will limit forwarding of messages to five people or groups at a time in order to slow the spread of misinformation

Now, Facebook is introducing a forwarding limit on Messenger to help slow the spread of viral misinformation or harmful content and provide people with greater transparency and accurate information.

With the introduction of this limit, messages can only be forwarded to five people or groups at a time. After that users will see a ‘forwarding limit reached’ alert on the messenger window. Facebook says limiting forwarding is an effective way to slow the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content that has the potential to cause real-world harm.

We believe controlling the spread of misinformation is critical as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues and we head toward major elections in the US, New Zealand and other countries. We are introducing a forwarding limit on Messenger to help curb the efforts of those looking to cause chaos, sow uncertainty or inadvertently undermine accurate information, the social networking giant wrote in a blog post.

This new feature is Facebook’s latest efforts to provide Messenger users a safer and more private messaging experience on the platform. Earlier this year, the company added several features including safety notifications, two-factor authentication, and easier ways to block and report an unwanted message.

Prior to this, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned instant messaging platform introduced similar forwarding limits to constrain virality which significantly reduced forwarded messages around the world.

Alongside the new Messenger limit, Facebook today also announced it will stop accepting submissions for new political ads in the week preceding Election Day.

In the final days of an election, there may not be enough time to contest new claims. So in the week before the election, we won’t accept new political or issue ads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.