Mozilla Urges WhatsApp To Fight Disinformation During The Global Election Period

WhatsApp is asked to make three changes during the Global Election (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Ahead of the 2024 global General Election (Pemilu), nonprofit company Mozilla Foundation urged WhatsApp to make a number of changes to counter disinformation.

The election for about half of the world's population will take place in 2024. However, the integrity of this election is threatened, because WhatsApp is not making enough efforts to detect and stop disinformation and hate speech networked on its platform, which can quickly turn into political violence," Mozilla wrote in an open letter.

Global campaign to mess with elections worldwide. Mozilla is calling on Zuckerberg's WhatsApp to do his part to "protect elections" by fighting "election disinformation." https://t.co/SeLfE2L0wN

— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) April 22, 2024

Global campaign to mess with elections worldwide. Mozilla is calling on Zuckerberg's WhatsApp to do his part to "protect elections" by fighting "election disinformation." https://t.co/SeLfE2L0wN

There are at least three simple changes that Mozilla has demanded against WhatsApp to slow the spread of political disinformation and other harmful content on its platform during the election.

First, they asked WhatsApp to reduce the ease of message replacement on the platform by adding an additional step that encourages users to pause for a moment and think before forwarding content.

Second, WhatsApp is required to add a disinformation warning label to viral content automatically such as Very forwarded: hope verification' to a viral message, in addition to the multiplely continued' label currently in use.

Finally, Mozilla also asked Mark Zuckerberg's platform to disable Community features, limit broadcast list sizes to 50 people, and limit its use to twice a day.

"Without a firm action from WhatsApp, disinformation attacks are likely to increase in 2024, aiming to manipulate and weaken elections that impact half the world's population," the company concluded.