Detecting Fake Messages Circulated in WhatsApp

At present WhatsApp is being used by 1.5 billion people. Though the platform is used to connect with family, friends and colleagues, it has been misused by a few to spread rumours and fake messages. When a user receives a WhatsApp forward message, he has very limited options at disposal to verify the veracity of the forwarded message. The user may attempt to verify the authenticity of the message with the forwarder or through google searchs. However, verifying the veracity of a WhatsApp message using google search is exhausting and the user cannot resort to google for all the forwarded messages received. This sets the motif of this research. We have used Natural Language Processing to deeply explore the semantics of fake data and identify patterns in them using supervised Machine Learning techniques to distinguish between fake and genuine messages. In this project, we have also extend our exploration based on behavioural and contextual patterns of fake messages.

This project was majorly done by three students - Gnaneshwar Adhi, Prasanna Kumar Thandul and Manikandan M (students from the batch of January 2019) under the guidance of Prof. Gourab Nath. The results of this project was presented in the 7th International Conference on Business Analytics and Intelligence, IIM Bangalore. The work was appreciated by many. Click here to read the full paper.

Prof. Gourab Nath and Gnaneshwar Adni at ICBAI, 2019 at IIM Bangalore