WhatsApp shares guidelines for staying connected during COVID-19

Tech giants are doing all they can to make sure that everyone stays safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. WhatsApp has been the centre of speculation for a wide variety of theories which have circulated on the platform in the past. The company recently had to take drastic measures to ensure that users do not mass-forward the information they receive. Recent WhatsApp updates made sure that users were not able to misinform anyone by limiting their message forwarding feature.

Users can now visit WhatsApp’s official website to receive proper guidelines about how they can stay connected in the ongoing pandemic. The company explains the proper guidelines in order to stay connected as well as encouraging users to turn towards trusted sources instead of social media for information about the disease.

The web page also contains a link to WhatsApp’s IFCN Fact Checking Organizations FAQ page, which provide users with contact numbers of their local fact-checking organizations. WhatsApp has provided this information to users to make sure that the information that is forwarded, to or by them, is authentic.

Educational Institutions, local businesses, non-profit organizations and health care professionals are provided with a set of guidelines on this page, which they can use to stay connected with their students, customers, communities and patients respectively. The company has also highlighted its Business WhatsApp feature for businesses to stay connected with their clients while managing multiple messages and queries.

These FAQ pages are a useful update by WhatsApp, as the company’s messaging app has been used to spread a lot of misinformation related to COVID-19 pandemic. The company is also displaying stories at the bottom of the FAQ which show how WhatsApp is being used to deal with coronavirus outbreaks throughout the world by various communities. The platform actively encourages users to consult the World Health Organization or their National Health Ministry for the latest information and guidelines about the pandemic.