Facebook announced that they are introducing a forwarding limit on Facebook Messenger. From now on, messages can only be forwarded to five people or groups at a time. The purpose of this limitation, according to Facebook, is slow the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content that has the potential to cause real world harm.
We want Messenger to be a safe and trustworthy platform to connect with friends and family. Earlier this year, we introduced features like safety notifications, two-factor authentication, and easier ways to block and report unwanted messages. This new feature provides yet another layer of protection by limiting the spread of viral misinformation or harmful content, and we believe it will help keep people safer online.
It is pretty obvious that viral misinformation is easily spread on social media. Topics like politics, elections, voting information, and COVID-19 tend to be cluttered with misinformation from those who want to trick people into believing something that simply isn’t true. Unfortunately, what happens on social media doesn’t always stay on social media. Those who are fooled into believing misinformation might end up harming themselves or others.
Personally, I think it is smart for Facebook to limit the reach of misinformation on Messenger with a forwarding limit of five people or groups at a time. Nobody wants to get questionable messages from strangers who clearly have an agenda they want to push. The forwarding limit should slow down those who want to spend their free time spreading misinformation. Perhaps they will give up.
That said, it would have been smarter for Facebook to crack down on the spread of misinformation much earlier than today. It is unfortunate that Facebook (and other social media sites) allowed the spread of misinformation on important topics to be shared across their platforms for so long.