WhatsApp to award $50,000 to researchers for study of fake news outbreak
New Delhi : Concerning the increase in death incidents across India due to false information on social media, WhatsApp owner has announced that it will grant awards worth $50,000 to researchers to study how wrong information and propaganda spread across social media platforms, affecting lives of people in the society.
"For this first phase of our program, WhatsApp is commissioning a competitive set of awards to researchers interested in exploring issues that are related to misinformation on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp Research Awards will provide funding for independent research proposals that are designed to be shared with WhatsApp, Facebook, and wider scholarly and policy communities," WhatsApp said in a statement.
Accordingly, the criterion to participate in the program is that an independent researcher should develop conceptual tools, gather and analyze data, and/or investigate relevant issues.
Each awardee will preserve all intellectual property rights to their data and analyses. The company said it will give preference to research conducted in countries such as India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and others where WhatsApp is a popular medium of communication.
The statement also indicates the eligibility criteria and expectations from participants, and mentions two workshops in Menlo Park, California. Last date to apply for the research is August 11.
The idea of research comes after multiple instances of mob lynchings triggered by motivated messages spread through WhatsApp. The messaging platform also supports regional languages that further act as catalysts in the spreading of messages to the masses.
