WhatsApp Must Act to Protect Elections
foundation.mozilla.org
Mozilla is making an urgent call for WhatsApp to implement three simple changes in its product to slow the spread of political disinformation and other harmful content on its platform.

The link above is for the petition

Here is the letter:

Our Letter To WhatsApp:

WhatsApp needs to implement these product changes during polling days and in the month before and the month after elections:

  • Add friction to forwarding messages: Reduce the ease with which messages can be forwarded on the platform by adding one additional step which nudges users to pause and reflect before they forward content.
  • Add disinformation warning labels to viral content: Automatically add clear “Highly forwarded: please verify” warning labels to viral messages, in addition to the “forwarded many times” label currently in use.
  • Reduce WhatsApp’s broadcast capabilities: Disable the Communities feature and also limit the size of broadcast lists to 50 people and cap their usage to twice a day.

Without decisive action from WhatsApp, disinformation attacks will likely scale up in 2024, aimed at manipulating and undermining elections affecting half of the world’s population. WhatsApp must act to change its product to protect election integrity.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    77·
    7 months ago

    I thought Mozilla was a FOSS organization whose goal it was to defend an open Internet with free communication?

    Here they are putting out a blog post that says “WhatsApp should use the power it has over its users to implement antifeatures that their users might not want and could remove if it were FOSS”.

    What the hell kind of world are we living in again?

    • OtterOPAEnglish
      11·
      7 months ago

      https://www.mozilla.org/en-CA/mission/

      Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.

      I would say that is a better mission than just promoting “free communication”. There’s more nuance to this situation than that

      • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        I suspect that I am; I am not omnipresent and not aware of everything happening everywhere.

        Am I right that the logic is approximately like this: FOSS is a left-wing anti-business cause, misinformation tends to help right-wing parties win elections, therefore it is compatible with FOSS values and principles to want to use the power that proprietary software developers have in order to censor (“stop the spread of”) misinformation?