Our family of apps playing critical role in challenging times: Facebook India exec
As India fights the Covid-19 outbreak, we have stepped up our efforts to respond to the crisis, said Facebook India’s vice-president Ajit Mohan.
Ajit Mohan, Facebook India’s vice-president and managing director, told HT in an interview that the company is working on a longer shelf life for Instagram live videos after a 60% rise in views during the lockdown. As part of the Facebook-Jio deal, he said, digital tools will be made available to workers of the MSME sector. Edited excerpts:
The Facebook-Jio deal is in the news. What more can Facebook users in India expect out of this deal? How will it help the country’s MSME sector?
Facebook and Jio platforms will work in tandem to further accelerate India’s exciting digital transformation and open up new opportunities for people and businesses around the country. An early focus area for us would be about giving MSMEs access to digital tools that will empower them to grow and expand their businesses while helping them connect with their customers.
The Covid-19 pandemic has come with a deluge of misinformation. Facebook has taken several steps. For instance, it has joined hands with Poynter Institute for Media Studies and International Centre for Journalists to help combat fake news. WhatsApp has tweaked some of its features to contain the spread of swirling rumours, and there are fresh curbs on advertisers as well. Are there any more plans for a change in Facebook’s features?
Facebook family of is are playing a critical role in the lives of people around the globe during these challenging times, as users are leveraging our platforms more than ever to connect with their friends and family. As India fights the Covid-19 outbreak, we have stepped up our efforts to respond to the crisis. A big part of our efforts has been to ensure that everyone has access to accurate information and that we do everything we can to reduce misinformation and harmful content. We are grateful for our partnership with the government, local authorities, and health organisations and will continue to evolve our products and services in the fight against the viral outbreak.
Globally, we have directed over two billion people to resources from the WHO (World Health Organisation) and other health authorities through our Coronavirus Information Center and pop-ups on Facebook and Instagram with over 350 million people clicking on them to learn more. In March, we displayed warnings on about 40 million posts related to Covid-19 on Facebook globally, based on around 4,000 articles by our independent fact-checking partners. When people saw those warning labels, 95% of the time they did not go on to view the original content.
In India, we work with eight independent third-party fact-checking partners in 11 vernacular languages and English.
On Facebook and Instagram, we reduce the distribution of content that our partners consider as fake. If users still see these fake content on their news feed, we attach a warning label of the misinformation along with a link to a fact-checked article.
WhatsApp has recently announced limiting highly-forwarded messages to only one chat. Globally, there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly-forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp after this new restriction came into effect. This change is helping WhatsApp’s use only for personal and private conversations.
Between the coronavirus WhatsApp helpline and the Facebook messenger chatbot, how many people would you say have been reached out to in India alone? Is there any behavioural insight that has emerged from the number of interactions on these two platforms?
At Facebook, we have taken several measures to ensure everyone has access to accurate information. With specific reference to the Facebook Messenger Chatbot, we launched the MyGov Corona Hub chatbot on Facebook Messenger in partnership with MyGov and MOHFW in April to raise awareness, provide authentic and accurate information and bust fake news about coronavirus. Our partnership has extended to nine state governments today (Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) and the chatbots are now available in Telugu, Kannada , Marathi, Odia, and Punjabi apart from Hindi and English. We have also added capabilities such as state-specific helpline numbers and testing centres, among others.
In addition, MyGov and MOHFW, along with WhatsApp, launched a helpline number to raise awareness and answer questions about the coronavirus. By the end of March, over 2 crore people had messaged the helpline number for information.
We are making product changes in our apps. To tackle misinformation on WhatsApp, the most recent product change was limiting frequently forwarded messages (i.e. messages containing double arrows) to one chat at a time, to control the spread of viral messages. Since putting into place this new limit, globally there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp. We also provide general education on tips to prevent the spread of rumours and fake news, and worked with partners across civil society and engaged with relevant government authorities and other technology platforms to help address the harmful consequences of misinformation.
Instagram live videos attracted some prominent artists and celebrities to perform live from within the confines of their homes amid the lockdown restrictions. Is there any plan to make Instagram live videos accessible for more than 24 hours? Will there be a paywall for Instagram live videos?
Instagram is the home of creativity and expression and at a time when social distancing is the new normal, we are seeing this in an even more prominent way than ever before. Culture is going virtual and the increase of Instagram live views by 60% in India is an indication of that. We are also seeing an exponential rise in interactivity with the release of new tools and features like co-watching on Instagram, the ‘Stay Home’ & ‘Ghar Pe Raho’ stickers, etc.
We know people are using Instagram to stay connected and entertained. Now, users can view live content from Instagram on their desktops as well. We are also testing a way for users to save live videos to IGTV (Instagram TV), so they stick around longer than the 24-hour limit in stories and are also easier to access.
