Hello,

Elections in India, South Africa, Mexico, and the European Union all take place in the next three months,¹ deciding the governments of more than 2 billion people. But the integrity of these elections is under threat, because WhatsApp isn’t doing enough to detect and stop networked disinformation and hate speech on its platform – which can quickly turn into political violence.²

Mozilla's researchers have found that political actors around the world have systematically exploited WhatsApp's broadcasting features in elections over the last five years to reach massive audiences. Closed WhatsApp groups have increasingly been used to share inaccurate political news, incendiary propaganda, hate speech, and conspiracy theories. Unchecked, this content can spread quickly and reach voters at a very large scale, and potentially even threaten the integrity of upcoming elections.³

Mozilla is making an urgent call for WhatsApp – the world's second most popular social network – to implement three simple changes to slow the spread of political disinformation and other harmful content on its platform. Will you add your name to ask WhatsApp to take action to protect elections globally?

Tell WhatsApp to immediately take action to update its product to detect and stop networked disinformation, hate speech, and political violence to protect the integrity of upcoming elections around the world.

We need WhatsApp to act quickly: The first round of voting in India starts on April 19 – less than three weeks from now. Voting in national elections in South Africa, India, and Mexico will end by June 2, with the EU voting the following week. WhatsApp needs to implement these product changes during polling days and in the month before and the month after elections:

• Add friction to forwarding messages: Reduce the ease with which messages can be forwarded on the platform by adding one additional step which nudges users to pause and reflect before they forward content.
• Add disinformation warning labels to viral content: Automatically add clear “Highly forwarded: please verify” warning labels to viral messages, in addition to the “forwarded many times” label currently in use.
• Reduce WhatsApp’s broadcast capabilities: Disable the Communities feature and also limit the size of broadcast lists to 50 people and cap their usage to twice a day.

Mozilla’s researchers found that in the Brazilian national elections in 2022, WhatsApp became a mass-broadcast tool where rumors, disinformation, and misleading narratives were spread by malicious actors, with the goal of overturning the actual election results.⁴

And during the 2019 Indian general elections, political groups built lists of voters that included sensitive information like caste, religion, National ID, and phone numbers, and created targeted WhatsApp groups to send these voters tailored political messages, including political propaganda that included disinformation and hate speech.⁵

WhatsApp says it is taking these issues seriously, and has imposed some restrictions on message forwarding. But Mozilla's analysis of WhatsApp's election-related plans finds that they aren’t nearly robust or specific enough. In fact, many of their election announcements are effectively copied-and-pasted from what they've said in other countries' elections, even if the safeguards there weren’t sufficient.

Without decisive action from WhatsApp, disinformation attacks like these will likely scale up in 2024, manipulating and potentially threatening the integrity of elections affecting half of the world’s population - including the 2 billion people whose countries vote over the next three months.

The Mozilla community has an important role to play in building public pressure on WhatsApp to make these changes, but there's not much time. Can you add your name asking for WhatsApp to protect elections worldwide?

Add your name to call on WhatsApp to immediately implement these product changes to detect and stop networked disinformation and hate speech on its platform before elections take place around the world in the next three months.

Thank you for all you do for the internet, and to protect elections around the world.

Nicholas Piachaud
Director, Campaigns
Mozilla

More Information:

1. New York Times: International Elections 2024: What You Need to Know. Published March 21, 2024.

2. Mozilla: Platforms, Promises and Politics: A reality check on the pledges platforms make before elections. Written by Odanga Madung and Mozilla Open Source Research & Investigations. Published February 27, 2024.

3. Mozilla: Mozilla’s Elections Casebook: Scrutinizing What Steps Platforms Have Taken to Protect Election Integrity Globally. Written by Becca Ricks, Odanga Madung and Mozilla Open Source Research & Investigations. Published February 27, 2024.

4. Mozilla: Election Manipulation in Brazil's 2022 General Elections. Written by Lori Regattieri and Débora Salles. Published February 27, 2024.

5. Mozilla: Party Politics and WhatsApp Pramukhs: Messaging Platforms and Electoral Integrity in India. Written by Divij Joshi. Published February 27, 2024.