Until September 25, Facebook Messenger will rollout the message forwarding limit to five people
A forwarding limit has been added to Facebook Messenger to allow users to forward messages to only five people or groups at a time. The goal of the new implementation is to reduce the spread of viral misinformation and fake news circulation through the messaging platform. In 2018, a similar message forwarding limit was brought to WhatsApp in India by Facebook.
This feature expanded to global markets in January last year 2019. Meanwhile, this forwarding limit for messages that are routed to one chat at a time was reduced by WhatsApp in April. New privacy features have recently been added by the Messenger app, in which the ability to block the app on iOS devices is also included.
A given message cannot be forwarded to more than five people or groups simultaneously, with the forwarding limit added to Messenger. After 5 users are added ‘Forwarding limit reached’ will be the notification shown by the application to the user, in case news users are being added.
According to Jay Sullivan, Director of Product Management, Privacy, and Security for Messenger said in a blog post on Thursday, the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content, with the potential to cause harm to the real world, can be slowed by limiting message forwarding.
In March, this feature was being tested internally, but now this feature of forwarding limit is being implemented by Facebook Messenger. This feature is currently limited to a few countries, but as of September 24th, it will be available to all users worldwide.
The message forwarding limit feature is added shortly before the US and New Zealand elections. Its functionality is very similar to the message sending limit that has been available on WhatsApp since August 2018.
In addition, reduce the frequency of forwarding messages is also being worked on by the WhatsApp team. In August last year, the frequency of forwarded message labels was added and in April last year, the limit on frequently forwarded messages was reduced to a single chat.
In July, an update was received by Facebook Messenger with App Lock where biometrics or facial features can be used to unlock applications. An announcement was made by the social media giant that photos received from unknown users can be blurred so that users you do not know can be reported.
