Why Do WhatsApp Users End Up Spreading Misinformation In India?

The key to the popularity of WhatsApp in India is affordable access. The platform was described in 2014 by Business Today as: “instant-messaging app that works across all smartphones ... it was nearly free.” With smartphones selling for under $100 along with affordable data services, WhatsApp is used for messaging by people all across India, from the Tier 1 Metros to the rural areas.

In India users also tend to propagate the messages they receive by forwarding them to others as was noted in 2018 in The Quint: “India leads the world in forwarding messages on WhatsApp.” . This is a known problem with WhatsApp which took measures by limiting the number of times a message could be forwarded. However, the problem still continues raising the question: Why do WhatsApp users in India feel compelled to forward messages? The answer lies in the way in which WhatsApp has been adopted within the unique culture of India.

WhatsApp has s special appeal within the collectivist culture of India where people rely heavily on personal networks for information. People in such cultures are well characterized by H. C. Triandis of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Their behavior is determined more often by the norms, roles, and goals of their collective.” This phenomenon found expression among 350 million users who chose WhatsApp as the preferred tool for conversations with the collective of friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The conversations, particularly about COVID-19, included exchange of fallacious information such as the example offered in Mother Jones: “Not long ago, a close relative of mine forwarded a message on a WhatsApp family group that claimed rasam cures coronavirus.” (Rasam, a spicy soup, however, has no scientific claim to be a cure for the disease.) In March, BuzzFeed reported that there was significant number of conversations on WhatsApp that offered cures, explanations of the origin of the virus, rate of spread, vulnerabilities and other information none of which could be substantiated. There are a few reasons that such information gets forwarded.

First, the credibility of the sender of the message plays a vital role in the process of message propagation. The classical Greek philosopher Aristotle’s concept of ethos suggests that a credible speaker of good character is considered persuasive. Similarly, American literary theorist Kenneth Burke makes the argument that a message from a person with whom the receiver can “identify” becomes persuasive. A WhatsApp message shows up on the smartphone screen usually with the identity of the sender who is often in the receiver’s “contact” list. This pre-existing familiarity makes the sender credible, especially when the receiver can identify with the sender. Thus a story from a relative about Rasam makes the message trustworthy and merits sharing.

Secondly, if the content appears to be internally consistent, or “the story hangs together,” then the message becomes believable. This is explained by American communication scholar Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm which suggests that stories are considered to be trustworthy if they resemble other stories, and appear to be logically coherent. Thus, a story about Rasam, which is often used as a comfort food for influenza, also appears to be a believable cure for COVID-19, and becomes worthy of propagation. Stories like that become instantly trusted because they are similar to other familiar stories.

This is particularly true in a collectivist culture. The impact of the dual trust – the trustworthy sender and a story that appears true – creates the temptation to propagate the message to others since it could help others. This was especially true for COVID-19, when the messages promised cures and offered hope.

Other events, such as as the tension between India and China, are also producing a similar effect with content being aggressively propagated. To be sure, there will be many future events where unreliable information will be widely propagated. It is worth considering a simple way out of this WhatsApp vicious cycle.

The issue can be addressed by more mindful use of tools, as I suggested in my 2011 book Alien Technology (Sage Publications, 2011). For instance, in the case of the WhatsApp tool, the user only has to be attentive to the “forwarded” label in the message. This label is meant to remind the reader that the message was not composed by the “trusted person” from whom the message arrived; instead, the trusted person only forwarded the message from a stranger. Recognizing that simple fact should trigger a closer examination of the content and a decision about propagating the message. This simple mindfulness could slow down the spread of disinformation.