In order to tackle fake news in India, WhatsApp is rolling out a television ad campaign. This is the first time for the company to do it globally.

Since the general elections are approaching in the country next year, the social media platform WhatsApp wants to crack down on the spreading of fake news through it.

WhatsApp in a statement said that extensive research has been conducted with Indian users before developing the ad films.

Three ad films are developed by WhatsApp based on the experience of real users.

These three films will be available in nine languages on TV, Facebook, and YouTube to reach the vast users of WhatsApp.

These nine languages are English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam.

The campaign is programmed to begin just before the commencement of elections of Rajasthan and Telangana.

This campaign has three 60-second films to depict real scenarios on dangerous rumours spread via spam and their consequences in family and school groups.

This experience will be used for national elections next year.

A protagonist character in each film teaches not to spread rumours via social media. It also teaches how to use WhatsApp controls like blocking unknown senders and leaving groups that are spreading misinformation.

These ads will be displayed on various channels like news and cinema in addition to the online and print ads.

Earlier, in the month of August, WhatsApp rolled out radio campaigns in various Indian states asking to check the authenticity of the forwarded information before sharing it with others.

WhatsApp is very keen now after being faced with severe criticism from the Indian government for causing mob lynching incidents across the country due to the spreading of fake news on its platform.

In this situation, the social media platform is trying to solve the misinformation issue in India.

Image by Bruno Marques Designer from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/whatsapp-green-contact-cellular-4860810/