To begin with, Happy Mother's Day!
Facebook owned instant messaging app WhatsApp on 30th March, 2020, reduced it's status video limit from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. According to a tweet by WABetaInfo it is happening in India and it’s probably an initiative to reduce the traffic on the server infrastructures. Another reason, which I believe played a decisive role in this time limit update, is an urge to curb fake news spread. But there is a loophole in this update!
The video limit is 15 seconds only for India and not for any other country. So a person residing abroad will be able to upload a 30 seconds video while his acquaintance in India will be able to see only the first 15 seconds of the video! I just realized the same when my mom and aunt uploaded the same video in their status. It was a 90 seconds long video and it took my mother 6 trimmed videos while my aunt 3! And when I saw her status, I saw the odd numbered 15 second intervals i.e., 0-15 seconds, 30-45 seconds and 60-75 seconds. When I asked her what about the rest of the status, she told she could see that, however we couldn't!
The threat
The video my mom and aunt shared was a family video, so it isn't a big deal. But we cannot deny the fact that loss of 50% of a video is no less than hiding half the data. And fake news is not just wrong news, but also incomplete news. Suppose the video would have been "The PMO promises to provide a financial aid of Rs 7500 to all BPL card holders, daily labourers and people who do not have a house" and the video gets trimmed at "The PMO promises to provide a financial aid of Rs 7500 to all", now this is a threat because who knows what upsurge it may lead to! I learnt of this today and I believe that even if Whatsapp's update is appreciable, it is precarious at the same time too.
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