Page 24 - aruba-today-20180901

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 1 September 2018
Journalists debunk rumors on WhatsApp ahead of Brazil vote

By SARAH DiLORENZO Chicas Poderosas, a group
Associated Press that has launched another
SAO PAULO (AP) — A damn- fact-checking operation.
ing image was whipping She said avoiding What-
around WhatsApp in Brazil: sApp in fact-checking "is to
A photo of a black luxury speak to few people, and
jet labeled "the plane of to speak to people who,
Lula's son" — seeming proof in general, already have
of high living by the fam- more access to verification
ily of jailed former Brazilian tools."
President Luiz Inacio Lula WhatsApp itself has begun
da Silva, who is leading to try to slow the spread
polls ahead of October's of false rumors. The com-
presidential elections. pany this year introduced
The image was shared a "forwarded" tag to let
so often that a new fact- recipients know when mes-
checking project known as sages don't originate with
Comprova set out to inves- the sender. It is also test-
tigate — and quickly de- ing limiting the number of
bunked it, tracing the jet's messages a user can for-
ownership all the way back ward at one time — which
to its date of manufacture. could help clamp down on
It was always U.S.-owned purposeful disinformation
and had never belonged campaigns.
to anyone in da Silva's fam- As it has in India, WhatsApp
ily. A women checks her mobile phone in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. is planning an ad cam-
Fact-checking efforts have Associated Press paign ahead of the elec-
become increasingly com- tions in Brazil that urges us-
mon around the world due home to nearly one in 10 checking it. The results are "If we manage to create ers to check messages that
to concerns about the users worldwide. posted on Comprova's a little bit of a culture of seem unbelievable and to
power of social media to Fact-checkers refer to website and published by caution, of skepticism, of think twice before sharing
spread disinformation and WhatsApp as a "black box," 24 news media organiza- checking before sharing, them.
influence elections. where it's not even possible tions that participate in it it. verifying sources, I think "We think that reducing vi-
What's unusual about the to know the extent of the Comprova, which means we will already feel some rality of forwarded content
effort by Comprova and problem. "prove" or "check" in Portu- difference," said Bramatti. can help users by keep-
other projects ahead of "It's a battle in which we guese, is supported by First "But really measuring the ing WhatsApp the way it
Brazil's October presiden- don't know the size or Draft, a project of Harvard's impact of this will be very was designed to be, a pri-
tial election is the focus strength of the enemy or Shorenstein Center on Me- difficult." vate messaging app," Carl
on messages spread via even where he is," said dia, Politics and Public Pol- It's hard to overstate how Woog, a company spokes-
WhatsApp. It's especially Daniel Bramatti, the presi- icy that has been involved important WhatsApp is to man, said in an interview.
difficult to police the mes- dent of the Brazilian Associ- with similar pre-election Brazilians. It's a place to say As in the U.S. and else-
saging app because us- ation of Investigative Jour- fact-checking in Britain your dog ran away or that where, fact-checkers are
ers exchange information there's an accident on the facing an unusually polar-
directly in an encrypted main road out of town or ized, distrustful electorate.
format, unlike more public that a school play was can- Many of the comments
platforms such as Face- celed. on Comprova's Facebook
book or Twitter, which have "WhatsApp is really a page are full of vitriol, ac-
struggled with how to bal- source for news coverage," cusing the project of one
ance freedom of speech said Yasodara Cordova, bias or another.
against preventing abuse. a senior researcher at the Many of its checks focus
While Facebook, which Digital Harvard Kennedy on claims about two of the
owns WhatsApp sometimes School. "You have tons of most polarizing figures in
removes accounts on its WhatsApp groups: You Brazilian politics: Da Silva,
own platform accused of have the family group, the who is serving a sentence
spreading misinformation, building group, the neigh- for a corruption and money
WhatsApp says it has no borhood group." laundering conviction and
interest in policing private The application helped is likely to be barred from
conversations — and that independent truckers or- running, and Jair Bolsonar-
it can't anyway since they A man checks his mobile phone in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tuesday, ganize a nationwide strike io, a far-right congressman
are encrypted. Aug. 28, 2018. Associated Press earlier this year. But it has noted for insulting women,
On WhatsApp, rumors can also been blamed for con- gays and blacks. They are
gain added credibility since tributing to a yellow fever running first and second in
they're shared privately by nalism, and Comprova's and France. outbreak by amplifying ru- polls, respectively. Matheus
people you know. spokesman. But this is First Draft's first mors that the vaccine was Salustiano, a university stu-
The issue is particularly When Comprova receives concerted foray into the ineffective or dangerous. dent, said many people
thorny in countries like Bra- questions about a photo, closed-off world of What- WhatsApp is particularly are so entrenched in their
zil, where more than 120 video or piece of text — or sApp. In separate initia- important for Brazil's poorer views that they resent fact-
million people use What- it notices on its own that tives, several Brazilian news classes because it works on checkers. The 20-year-old
sApp — more or less ev- something suspect is re- outlets have also set up simple phones and many has asked Comprova to
eryone who has access to ceiving a lot of attention WhatsApp numbers where mobile phone plans allow check some material he re-
the internet — making Latin on social media — a team people can send questions people to use it for free, ceived from the WhatsApp
America's largest country of journalists sets about or forward suspect posts. said Maria Martha Bruno of groups he belongs to. q