WhatsApp is currently working on a new feature to assist the moderation team in keeping the platform secure for all users after releasing a feature that allows viewing status updates directly within the chat list: the capability to report a status update for a subsequent update of WhatsApp Desktop beta!
You undoubtedly already know that you can inform WhatsApp of messages and contacts that you believe to be in violation of their Terms of Service. You can select to report specific messages, however when you report a contact, WhatsApp will receive the previous 5 messages that were sent. But what can you do if material posted through status updates breaks their terms of service? Currently, WhatsApp is developing a status report function for inclusion in a future release of the WhatsApp Desktop beta in order to address this issue:
This screenshot demonstrates how reporting a status update will be accessible directly from a new menu in the status section. With the help of this feature, you will finally be able to alert the moderation staff if you come across any questionable status updates that might be in violation of their Terms of Service. The status update will be sent to WhatsApp for moderation purposes so they can determine whether there has been a violation, as is the case with reporting messages.
Since messages, voice calls, media, location sharing, calls, and status updates are all protected by the end-to-end encryption protocol on all of your devices, it should be noted that this feature does not violate end-to-end encryption as claimed by ProPublica last year due to misunderstanding. This means that nobody, not even WhatsApp and Meta, can view the content of your messages and listen to your private calls, but it is important to bring a report option to keep the platform and other users safe. Every other instant messaging service has a report option that operates in the same way.
A future update of WhatsApp Desktop beta will include a feature that will allow users to report status updates. We will update this post when new information becomes available, and we anticipate adding the same feature to WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS in the future.
