WhatsApp has requested an unprecedented change for its messaging application, one that paves the way for a completely different functionality that would be offered to users around the world. We are talking about a request that comes from the BBC, who say that the information they publish for readers should be automatically published on the WhatsApp platform as a method to counter the false information that circulates through the platform every day.
WhatsApp publishes information from the WHO on the platform to counter the lies that various entities keep propagating on the platform, and the BBC is considered as reliable a source of information as the WHO. Of course, this can start a very complicated discussion about the types of information that come from the WHO, and what kind of research they have behind it, versus the information that can come from a media trust, whatever it is.
WhatsApp: UNPRECEDENTED Change Required for the Application
WhatsApp started publishing information from the WHO in the application because a reliable source of information was needed to combat the lies about the Coronavirus that are propagated non-stop through the platform. Leaving a free way for the press to do this is not something that WhatsApp wants, and it probably wouldn't be normal either, because it's one thing to have information directly from medical experts, and another to have it from to journalists who do not have medical or other training behind them.
WhatsApp will not offer media trusts the opportunity to publish articles on its platform any time soon, and this is probably because Facebook does not want to give them access there either, at least for now. Considering that pressure is starting to build for WhatsApp to provide this access, it is very possible that this will happen in the not too distant future, but it will probably take several years of constant pressure for Facebook to give in.
WhatsApp could give in if there will be serious problems with the platform, or with Facebook, and the press is cornering both companies again, but it remains to be seen what will happen in the end.
