To limit the possibility of spreading viral misinformation to other users on Messenger, Facebook introduced a new feature called Forwarding Limit. Once all users have received the update, they will only be able to forward a message to five users on Messenger at a time.
On the official messenger news blog, Jay Sullivan, Director of Product Management, Messenger Privacy and Safety, mentioned that this is a part of their ongoing efforts to offer people a safer and more private messaging platform. Hence, they are introducing a forwarding limit on messengers, which will limit message forwarding to five for each user.
This includes, a message can be only be forwarded to five other users or groups at one time. Though this might not eliminate the spread of misinformation on the platform, it will slow it down.
Alexandru Voica, EMEA tech comms manager at Facebook, Tweeted:
Controlling the spread of misinformation is vital as the world is heading towards major elections, such as in the United States, New Zealand and some other countries. The main aim of the Messenger team is to keep it a safe and trustworthy platform where people can connect with their friends and family.
