WhatsApp’s New Limits Lead To 70% Drop In Highly Forwarded Messages

Earlier this month, WhatsApp made it impossible to forward messages to more than one chat or group at a time – a significant change from the old limit of 5 chats/groups.

The change has led to a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages.

We recently introduced a limit to sharing ‘highly forwarded messages’ to just one chat. Since putting into place this new limit, globally there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp.
This change is helping keep WhatsApp a place for personal and private conversations. WhatsApp is committed to doing our part to tackle viral messages.
WhatsApp spokesperson

The measures were put in place following a surge in forwarded messages over the past few weeks. With misinformation regarding the Novel Coronavirus posing a risk to millions of people globally – its no surprise that WhatsApp is testing out these kinds of measures to help reduce the impact of fake news.

At the time the announcement was made WhatsApp did admit that forwarding in and of itself was not necessarily a bad thing but they made it clear that this was an attempt to slow the spread of certain messages

Is all forwarding bad? Certainly not. However, we’ve seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. We believe it’s important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation.