A message is being widely circulating on social media claiming that WhatsApp will start charging users for sharing messages. The post claims this as the alert message from the Director and the CEO of WhatsApp. The post also asks people to forward this message to 20 contacts and get the new WhatsApp logo with the new icon Facebook “f” on it. It warns people that their WhatsApp account will shut down by tomorrow 6 pm if they do not forward this message. Amid the ongoing confusion over WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, these posts going viral on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: WhatsApp will charge their users for sending messages.
Fact: WhatsApp did not announce any new policy to charge users for sending messages. The WhatsApp website mentions it as a free message sharing platform for users with internet services. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On searching the WhatsApp website, it is found that WhatsApp did not announce any such new policy that charges users for sending messages. We also did not find any such new policy announced on the official Twitter handle of WhatsApp. On the website, WhatsApp mentioned that their firm is a free message sharing platform. They mentioned the same in the FAQ section on their website. WhatsApp published an article on their blog about similar hoax messages being shared on social media.
In our research, we found old social media posts sharing similar messages. They can be seen here and here. If WhatsApp had announced any such new policy, several media websites would have reported it immediately. Many other Fact-Checking websites also published articles debunking these hoax messages circulating on social media. They can be read here, here, and here.
In 2019, the same message in the post was shared with a claim that Reliance group chairman Mukesh Ambani acquired WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars and will start charging WhatsApp users for sharing messages. These posts can be seen here, here, and here. News articles debunking these fake messages can be read here and here.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought WhatsApp for 19 billion US dollars in 2014. But, there is no official information about the new Whatsapp logo referring Facebook “f” symbol on it.
To sum it up, WhatsApp did not announce any new policy that charges its users for sending messages.
