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# Facebook attempting to close the WhatsApp stable door, after the viral horse has bolted
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2019/01/facebook-attempting-to-close-the-whatsapp-stable-door-after-the-viral-horse-has-bolted/
- Published: 2019-01-22T12:31:31.000Z
- Updated: 2019-01-22T12:51:38.000Z
- Description: WhatsApp rolls out a worldwide move to try and limit the spread of disinformation.
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: whatsapp, india, misinformation, Facebook

Today in a social media story you should probably be paying attention to: Facebook is scrambling to lock down the biggest abuse of another of its platforms, WhatsApp. [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-whatsapp-idUSKCN1PF0TP?utm%5Fcampaign=Big%20Revolution&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fsource=Revue%20newsletter):

> WhatsApp is limiting worldwide the number of times a user can forward a message to five, starting on Monday, as the popular messaging service looks to fight “misinformation and rumors”, company executives said on Monday.

A first move, but probably not enough of one yet. While in the Anglophone world we've been obsessing over Facebook-spread misinformation, in other countries — notably India and Myanmar — WhatsApp has been the major culprit.

It may be happening in other countries, too. But the very nature of WhatsApp as a closed messaging environment makes it very hard to tell. I wouldn't bet against Facebook having to deal with a WhatsApp-based scandal in the US or Europe this year. The co-founder of the messaging app [quit his role at Facebook](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/30/jan-koum-whatsapp-co-founder-quits-facebook?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica story last year.