Viber is also launching new features.
On May 30, Rakuten Viber announced that it would sign the EU Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online.
“Viber will track, analyze and remove public hostile statements in channels on its platform. To this end, the company will cooperate with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumer Protection and a network of specialized non-governmental organizations. If aggressive or derogatory content appears on the channel, users or one of the participating organizations will be able to mark the post as unacceptable, and the Viber moderator team will review it soon, “the company said, adding that the complaints will be considered within 24 hours.
Viber plans to involve specialized non-governmental organizations to improve the protection of users from the spread of hate speech.
At the same time, Viber is launching new features in the channels for content authors and users, namely comments on posts, scheduling posts and hidden lists of channel members:
Comments – In addition to reacting to posts, users can share views with other members of the channel. Comments are turned on and off at the discretion of the channel administration.
Scheduling publications – authors can plan future posts in advance. To do this, when publishing a post you need to press the send button and select the desired time.
Hidden channel list: This feature allows users to maintain privacy. The list of channel members will be available only to administrators and super-administrators, and users will only see the total number of members. This step ensures the privacy and security of data in Viber.
“The administration of the channel will be able to turn the community into a channel with the help of a special bot. The transition to the channel works in one direction, after the transition it will be impossible to convert the channel back to the community. All previous posts will remain available, and community members will become members of the channel, “the company added.
It will be recalled that according to Kantar CMeter, as of December 2021, Viber remained the most popular messenger among Ukrainians (98.3%). At the same time, Viber is often spread about fakes: for example, that it is supposed to be paid or that the inscription “Stay safe” means that the account was hacked by Russia.