People will no longer be able to add you to a group without your permission
Messaging giant WhatsApp has added a new feature to its service that will mean people will no longer be able to add you to a group without your permission.
The move comes in a bid to stop the spread of misinformation on the app recently, with a BBC report indicating that the Brazilian elections last year were rife with campaigners abusing the service to add large groups of people to politically-motivated groups without their consent. TIME also documented similar misuse of WhatsApp in India ahead of the country’s national elections.
The new feature allows you to stop anyone who isn’t saved in your contacts from adding you to a group, or alternatively, you can completely ban everyone from being able to add you. Of course, the option will remain to leave the setting unchanged and allow anyone to be able to add you to a group without having to give permission.
The Facebook-owned service has confirmed that the new settings will be rolled out worldwide within the next few weeks, following the company’s move to limit the number of times a message can be forwarded to five and introduce a new fact-checking service in India, after the platform – which has some 200 million users in the country – came under criticism for facilitating the spread of misinformation.
Users that choose to restrict who can add them to groups can still be invited by a private link, which gives basic information about the group they’ve been invited to. They can then choose to join or the link will expire in 72 hours.
To access the new settings head to ‘Account options’ within the settings menu. Select ‘Privacy’, then ‘Groups’, and from there you’ll be able to choose between three options: Nobody, My Contacts, or Everyone.
It appears the days of awkwardly leaving a WhatsApp group after 10 minutes are over. Rejoice.
