Whatsapp awards $50,000 for study on misinformation during 2019 elections

Whatsapp, one of the world’s most popular instant messaging
application, has awarded a $50,000 research grant for study on the
use and abuse of of the platform during the 2019 elections.

The international research collaboration put together by
Jonathan Fisher and Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham,
Idayat Hassan, of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD),
Abuja and Jamie Hitchen of AREA Consulting, will focus on the
governorship elections in Kano and Oyo states in 2019.

The winning project, titled “The use and abuse of WhatsApp in an
African election: Nigeria 2019” was among the 20 proposals that won
the research awards to be carried in countries where the platform
is frequently used, including Nigeria.

“WhatsApp announced the recipients of its $1 million research
grants to academics from around the world for the purpose of
studying misinformation and its impact on society. Fake news, calls
for violence, election-related propaganda and other topics come
under the different proposals for which the grants were given,” a
statement from Whatsapp read.

“The goal of the research award is to facilitate high quality,
external research on a wide range of topics by academics and
experts who are in the countries where WhatsApp is frequently used
and where there is limited research on the topic.

“Tagged ‘WhatsApp Misinformation and Social Science Research
Awards’, approximately 600 proposals were submitted and reviewed
with the awardees representing the highest quality projects across
several relevant research areas.

WhatsApp awarded 20 grants up to $50,000 each to researchers in
several countries including Nigeria, Brazil,
India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain,
United Kingdom, and United States.”