Like many other companies and social media platforms, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been helping its users remain safe and informed since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic. Recently, the International Fact-Checkers Network (IFCN) collaborated with WhatsApp to introduce an automated chatbot to prevent the spread of fake news. Now, users can chat with it in Hindi.
Previously, the fact-checking chatbot in WhatsApp only supported English and Spanish. So, due to the language barrier issues, many people who do not have a strong grasp of the English language could not use the chatbot for fact-checking purposes.
However, now, with the support for the Hindi language, the company aims to make the chatbot accessible to millions of people in India who are avid WhatsApp users.
Now, users can easily access the chatbot by sending a “Hi” to +1 (727) 2912606. After this, the chatbot will be added to the user’s chat list and he/she can access it all the time.
Users can ask any this bot just about any fact and it will tell if the fact is false or true. So, this is a pretty powerful tool that encourages users to check forwarded news or facts before sharing them further.
Previously, the WHO and the Indian Government collaborated to add a Coronavirus information chatbot on WhatsApp. Now, with the Hindi support for the IFCN chatbot on WhatsApp, we just have to wait and see how much of an impact it makes in the prevention of the spread of fake news around communities.
