Fake news menace: You can share WhatsApp messages with only up to 5 people

In response to the government's crackdown on the circulation of fake news, especially using its platform, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned instant messaging mobile app, has limit the number of people to whom you can forward a message to five.

The move follows several other steps with the same objective, such as issuing guidelines on how to identify forwarded messages and be a responsible user of the service.

The new feature would roll out as part of an app update from this week itself. The step came soon after the government asked WhatsApp and other social media platforms to take onus and help curb fake news circulation, which had been causing violence -- even lynching in some recent cases.

WhatsApp has also reportedly been testing more features to crack down on fake news on its platform. Recently, the company had started testing a feature in its beta app for Android in which the app recognises authenticity of the link and marks unusual links as ‘suspicious’.