WhatsApp Unveiled Helpline in India to Prevent AI Generated Misinformation Deepfakes

WhatsApp will soon get a useful security feature that will protect users in India from misinformation. This will help in combating misinformation generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes. Meta and the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA) announced on Monday that they will soon launch a helpline on WhatsApp where users will be able to report all such cases. 20 technology companies, including Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, have decided to work together to detect and combat harmful AI content ahead of the 2024 elections.

MCA has partnered with Meta to work on this new security feature Partnership The WhatsApp Helpline will be a chatbot feature where any user can easily reach out and report a message that is spreading misinformation or is a deepfake. Deepfake is an AI-generated content that misleads users by impersonating a person in photo or video format. Often such content is made to look exactly like the real thing and spreads misinformation to a large group.

MCA will set up a central ‘Deepfake Analysis Unit’ which will work in collaboration with its fact-checking member organisations and check and verify all reported messages. If the reported content is found to be misinformation or AI-generated deepfakes, it will be rejected and the message may be deleted. The chatbot will be available in 4 languages ​​including English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. According to the statement, the focus of this initiative is to work on 4 aspects of detection, prevention, reporting and driving awareness. It is expected that whatsapp The helpline will help in accessing better information and verifying the messages. It is being told that this feature will be available by March 2024.

Meta also runs several fact-checking programs in India and has partnered with 11 independent agencies for this work and has helped users prevent the spread of misinformation on its platforms. Users on WhatsApp already had the option to flag messages to more than 50 IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) member organizations to verify the information. Apart from this, many fact-checking agencies run their own WhatsApp channels, by following which users can get timely verification and important information. The instant messaging platform also limits the spread of misinformation from forwarded messages.