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WhatsApp ahead of Lok Sabha elections in India is making every effort to curb fake news. The instant messaging platform on Wednesday said it will now allow its users to decide whether they want to get added to groups.

The social media platforms are expected to play a major role in political campaigns to reach out to citizens in large numbers.

"WhatsApp groups continue to connect family, friends, coworkers, classmates and more. As people turn to groups for important conversations, users have asked for more control over their experience," the Facebook-owned company said in a statement.

The messaging application has added that a new privacy setting in which an invite system will help users decide who can add them to groups on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp users earlier could be added to groups without their consent. In order to enable the feature, users can go to 'settings' option in WhatsApp application and select one of three options - “my contacts,” “nobody,” or “everyone.” If they choose “nobody”, users will have to approve of joining every group to which they are invited.

Upon choosing “my contacts” option, users from the person's address book will be able to add them to groups. In these cases, the person inviting you to a group will be prompted to send a private invite through an individual chat, giving the user the choice of joining the group. The user will be given three days to accept the invite before it expires, the statement said.

"With these new features, users will have more control over the group messages they receive," WhatsApp said. These new privacy settings will begin rolling out to some users starting Wednesday, and will be available worldwide in the coming weeks to those using the latest version of WhatsApp, it added. WhatsApp Testing New 'Forwarded' Message Features For Fighting Fake News.

WhatsApp, which counts India as one of its largest markets with more than 200 million users, had faced strong criticism from the Indian government after a series of mob-lynching incidents claimed lives last year.

WhatsApp had earlier this year restricted forwarding messages to five chat at once by coming under pressure to stop fake news and rumors. It has also been putting out advertisements in newspapers, television, and radio campaigns offering tips to users on how to spot misinformation.

As the general elections are approaching, the Indian government had warned social media platforms of beefed-up action if any attempt was made to influence the country's electoral procedure through the undesirable way.

By Sowmya Sangam