WhatsApp rolls out second phase of radio ad campaign in India
New Delhi, Sep 5 : After being pulled up by the government to take concrete steps to stop the spread of misinformation and fake news on its platform, Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Wednesday said it has launched the second phase of its radio ad campaign in the country to create awareness and empower users.
The first phase of the educational campaign was kicked off on August 29 with ads across 46 radio stations of All India Radio (AIR) in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
The second phase of the campaign started on Wednesday on September 5 with radio ads across 83 AIR radio stations in Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
These campaigns will run in eight regional languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Oriya and Tamil -- for a 15-day duration, WhatsApp said in a statement.
The campaign has been designed in an easy to understand format to help user's spot misinformation and further sensitize them about the challenges of fake news and addressing these as a society.
"WhatsApp stands committed in its efforts to address these issues jointly with civil society, stakeholders and the government," the company said.
These radio campaign highlights tips like understand when a message is "forwarded"; check information that seems unbelievable and photos carefully; question information that upsets you and be thoughtful about what you share.
WhatsApp has also roped in New Delhi-based non-profit Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) to create awareness among its users about the need to verify information.
"Our goal is to help keep people safe by creating greater awareness about fake news and empowering users to help limit its spread," Ben Supple, Public Policy Manager at WhatsApp, said in a statement.
As part of the new partnership with WhatsApp, DEF has committed to holding 40 training sessions for community leaders in 10 states across the country where there have been worrisome cases of violence and where there will be state polls before the end of the year.
In a meeting with WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels on August 21, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad instructed the Facebook-owned platform to comply with the law of the land and take "suitable" steps to prevent its misuse.
The meeting took place after several lynching incidents were linked to the spread of misinformation on the instant messaging platform which has over 200 million monthly active users in India.
WhatsApp has also taken some technological measures to curb the problem of disinformation, including the introduction of the "forwarded" tag and limiting forwarding to five chats at once.
"In addition to the steps we are taking within WhatsApp, we believe impacting lives through the power of education is critical to helping achieve the vision of a 'Digital India'," Supple added.
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Syria says Israeli strikes leave 18 dead in the biggest toll since the war in Gaza began
Masyaf (Syria), Sep 9: The number of people killed in overnight Israeli strikes in Syria has risen to 18 with dozens more wounded, Syria's health minister said on Monday — the largest death toll in such an attack since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
One of the sites targeted was a research centre used in the development of weapons, a war monitor said. Syrian officials said civilian sites were targeted.
Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel's war against Hamas — a Hezbollah ally — in Gaza.
However, the intensity and death toll of Sunday night's strikes were unusual.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.
Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes hit several areas in central Syria, damaging a highway in Hama province and sparking fires, Syrian state news agency SANA said.
Speaking to reporters, Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabbash described the strikes as a “brutal and barbaric aggression”. He said the death toll had risen to 18 with nearly 40 wounded.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said 25 were killed, including at least five civilians, while the others included Syrian army soldiers and members of Hezbollah and other Iran-linked armed groups.
One strike targeted a scientific research centre in Masyaf, and others struck sites where “Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria”, the observatory said. It said the research centre was reportedly used for developing weapons, including short- and medium-range precision missiles and drones.
Minister of Electricity Mohammad al-Zamel said the strikes had caused “truly significant” damage to water and electricity infrastructure.
“This brutal attack targeted civilian targets, and the martyrs were mostly civilians, as were the wounded,” he said.
Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous, which the observatory said were the result of air defense missiles falling.
On Monday afternoon, a charred car remained at the scene of one strike and smoke was still rising from some spots where fires had been put out.
