Fake news in India

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Fake news and similar false information (misinformation or disinformation [1] ) is fostered and spread across India through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. [2] [3] Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media. [4] [5]

Contents

Terminology and background

Fake news is defined as stories purporting to be news that are intentionally and verifiably false and has the capacity to misinform and mislead readers. [6] [7] In academic typology, fake news is classified into several forms along the axes of degree of facticity, motivation of deception and form of presentation; it includes satire and parody that have a basis in facts but can mislead when de-contextualised, it includes fabrications and manipulation of information which were created with the intent to deceive or mislead and also includes covert advertising and political propaganda which are aimed to deceive in an organised attempt to influence wider public opinion. [8] The UNESCO Handbook for Journalism Education and Training provides an additional distinction of two forms of fake news, one that is deliberately created with the intention of targeting and causing harm to a social group, an organisation, a person or a country, described as disinformation and the other being simple misinformation that wasn't created for the purpose of causing harm. [9] In India, fake news is predominantly disseminated by homegrown political disinformation campaigns. [6] [10]

Creators

According to newspaper The Telegraph, "a giant chunk of the disinformation is created and highlighted by an ecosystem close to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Narendra Modi government, and their supporters. Unsurprisingly, many of these fake claims serve their political interests." [11]

Disinformation campaigns

Coronavirus

Misinformation related to coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is in the form of social media messages related to home remedies that have not been verified, fake advisories and conspiracy theories. [12] [13] At least two people have been arrested for spreading fake news about the coronavirus pandemic. [14] [15] To counteract this, over 400 Indian Scientists are working together to debunk false information about the virus, as of 14 April 2020. [16]

Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019

The CAA Protests led to a surge of fake news on social media targeting both protesters and Delhi police. BJP members shared videos falsely claiming that students from Aligarh Muslim University were raising anti-Hindu slogans. [17] The Supreme Court of India urged the government of India to publicize the aims and benefits of the Citizenship Amendment Act to combat fake news. [18] [19] BJP leaders shared a phone number for people to give a missed call to show support, which was misused on Twitter with fake claims about lonely women and free Netflix subscriptions. [20]

Indian security agencies identified about 5,000 Pakistani social media handles spreading fake propaganda about the CAA, including "deep fake videos". [21] Social media platforms employed mediators to curb fake and communal news. [22]

Old pictures and videos were shared on social media, some by prominent personalities, to give a communal spin to the protests. Old images were also used to suggest violence at protest sites. [23] [24] [25] Similarly, old clips of police brutality were reposted and falsely linked to the CAA protests. [17] BJP's IT Cell Head Amit Malviya shared distorted videos misrepresenting anti-CAA protesters as chanting "Pakistan Zindabad" and making inflammatory slogans against the Hindu community. [26]

Elections

Fake news was very prevalent during the 2019 Indian general election. [27] [28] Misinformation was prevalent at all levels of society during the build-up to the election. [29] [30] The elections were called by some as "India's first WhatsApp elections", with WhatsApp being used by many as a tool of propaganda. [31] [32] As VICE and AltNews write, "parties have weaponized the platforms" and "misinformation was weaponized" respectively. [33] [34]

India has 22 scheduled languages, [35] and vetting information in all of them becomes difficult for multinationals like Facebook, which has only gathered the resources to vet 10 of them, leaving languages like Sindhi, Odia and Kannada completely unvetted, as of May 2019. [36] Nevertheless, Facebook went on to remove nearly one million accounts a day, including ones spreading misinformation and fake news before the elections. [37]

Fake news against Pakistan

A study by the EU DisinfoLab in 2019 found that "265 fake local news websites in more than 65 countries are managed by Indian influence networks aiming to influence international institutions and sway the public perception of Pakistan." [38] By 2020, the number of such pro-India fake news websites grew to 750 across 116 countries, as revealed in the Indian Chronicles investigation. [39] Prominent examples of fake news-spreading websites and online resources include OpIndia [40] [41] and Postcard News. [42] [43]

According to the BBC News, many of the fake news websites were operated by an Indian company called the Srivastava Group, responsible for anti-Pakistan lobbying efforts in Europe and linked to spreading fake news and propaganda. [44] [39] These websites, which appear as real news sites by copying syndicated news content from other outlets, plant opinion pieces and stories critical of Pakistan from NGO members linked to their network. [44]

The network aims to influence organizations like the UN Human Rights Council and European Parliament, primarily to "discredit Pakistan". [39] In October 2019, it sponsored a trip for far-right European Parliament MPs to Indian-administered Kashmir, where they met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. [44]

Domains operated by the group included "Manchester Times," "Times of Los Angeles," "Times of Geneva," and "New Delhi Times," among others. [44] Their coverage often focuses on issues like secessionist groups, minorities, human rights, and terrorism in Pakistan. [44] [45] [46]

The EU Chronicle, a Srivasta Group website claiming to deliver EU news, was found to have op-ed articles "falsely attributed to their authors, some of them European lawmakers," non-existent journalists, plagiarised text, and content mainly focused on Pakistan. [45] EPToday, another anti-Pakistan news website, was shut down after being exposed by Politico Europe. [45]

The network, aiming to support Indian lobbying interests, resurrected fake personas of dead human rights activists and journalists, impersonated media agencies like The Economist and Voice of America, used European Parliament letterheads, listed fake phone numbers and addresses including the UN, created obscure book publishing companies, registered hundreds of fake NGOs, think tanks, informal groups, and imam organisations, and conducted cybersquatting on Pakistani domains. [46] Most websites had a presence on social media platforms like Twitter. [46]

Following EU DisinfoLab's 2019 report, some domains were closed but later resurrected under new names. [46] Researchers state that the main target of the fake websites' content is not European readers but mainstream Indian news outlets like ANI [39] and Yahoo News India [46] which reuse and republish their material, reaching millions in India. [45]

In 2023, Indian media spread disinformation about a padlocked grave in Hyderabad, India, claiming it was in Pakistan to prevent the dead bodies from being raped. These stories went viral and severely defamed Pakistan. [47]

Kashmir

Misinformation and disinformation related to Kashmir is widely prevalent. [48] [49] There have been multiple instances of pictures from the Syrian and the Iraqi civil wars being passed off as from the Kashmir conflict with the intention of fueling unrest and backing insurgencies. [50] [51] [52]

In August 2019, following the Indian revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's Article 370, disinformation related to whether people were suffering or not, lack of supplies and other administration issues followed. [53] [54] The official Twitter accounts of the CRPF and Kashmir Police apart from other government handles called out misinformation and disinformation in the region. [55] The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology assisted by getting Twitter to suspend accounts spreading fake inciteful news. [56]

The Indian Army and media houses such as India Today denied various claims such as the Indian Army burning down houses, [57] the deaths of six personnel in cross border firing, [58] and a series of "torture" allegations made by activist Shehla Rashid via Twitter. [59] [60]

On the other hand, The New York Times claimed officials in New Delhi were portraying a sense of normality in the region, whereas "security personnel in Kashmir said large protests kept erupting". The newspaper quoted a soldier Ravi Kant saying "mobs of a dozen, two dozen, even more, sometimes with a lot of women, come out, pelt stones at us and run away." [61] The Supreme Court of India was told by the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that "not a single bullet has been fired by security forces after August 5", however BBC reported otherwise. [62] [63] The Supreme Court went onto say that the center should make "every endeavor to restore the normalcy as early as possible." [62]

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, social media accounts based in India spread pro-Israeli disinformation, with influencers misrepresenting videos purported to show school girls taken as sex slaves, or Hamas kidnapping a Jewish baby. Fact-checker Pratik Sinha said the "Indian right-wing has made India the disinformation capital of the world". [64] The trend forms part of a wider pattern of fake news in India with an Islamophobic slant, including disinformation on Palestinians coming from the BJP IT Cell, a vehicle of India's governing party, the BJP. [64]

Student–People's uprising in Bangladesh

Gobinda Pramanik, Former Secretary General of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, criticized the Indian media, suggesting they inaccurately portrayed the situation. Pramanik stated that the vandalism incidents targeted only the homes of certain Awami League leaders, both Hindu and Muslim, with a history of aggressive actions. He noted that opposition party members, including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, protected Hindu temples and homes from potential attacks. [65] [66]

BNP leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy denied claims by Indian media that his party is anti-Hindu, asserting that the BNP has been inclusive of all communities in Bangladesh and has consistently supported all religious groups. He highlighted his role as a former minister in a BNP-led government and as a member of the party's highest decision-making body. [67]

Numerous India-based social media accounts circulated misleading videos and images about attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus, using hashtags like #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus and #SaveBangladeshiHindus, which were debunked by fact-checking organizations. [68] A false report claimed that the house of Bangladeshi cricketer Liton Das had been set on fire, which was later debunked. [69] [70] Das himself refuted the claim in a Facebook post. [71] Several television news outlets falsely claimed the violence was an "act of genocide" and a "pogrom", while an alleged arson attack on a Hindu temple was found to have occurred at an adjacent Awami League office. [72]

According to Bangladeshi political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman, Indian media viewed the situation in Bangladesh through "their Islamophobic eye", despite the view in Bangladesh that it was a popular movement. [73]


Analysts Farid Erkizia Bakht and Siddharth Varadarajan suggested that India's intent to destabilize Bangladesh through this disinformation campaign stems from the disappointment of losing a valuable ally like Sheikh Hasina and from apprehensions about the new government in the country harbouring anti-Indian sentiments. [73]

Disinformation about a "genocide on Hindus" was also spread by actors from outside the region, including by British anti-immigrant and anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson. [74]

Other examples

Modes of distribution

Social media

The damage caused due to fake news on social media has increased due to the growth of the internet penetration in India, which has risen from 137 million internet users in 2012 to over 600 million in 2019. [81] Fake news is also spread through Twitter. and Meta technologies from Facebook [82] [83] [84] and WhatsApp. [85] [86] [87]

Impact

Socio-political

Fake news is frequently used to target minorities and has become a significant cause of localised violence as well as large scale riots. [88] Engineered mass violence was instigated during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, through a disinformation campaign propagating the love jihad conspiracy theory and circulating a fake news video. [89]

Institutional

Internet shutdowns are used by the government to control social media rumors from spreading. [54] [90] Ideas like linking Aadhaar to social media accounts were suggested to the Supreme Court of India by the Attorney General. [91]

In November 2019, the Indian ministry of information and broadcasting planned to set up a FACT checking module to counter fake news by continuously monitoring online news sources and social media posts. The module will work on the principles of "Find, Assess, Create and Target" (FACT) and will initially be run by information service officers. [92] By the end of 2019, the Press Information Bureau (under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) set up a fact-checking unit focused on verifying news related to the government. [93] [94]

Journalists in Kashmir have faced repeated criminal proceedings, leading to concerns from three UN OHCHR Special Rapporteurs about a "pattern of silencing independent reporting on Jammu & Kashmir through the threat of criminal sanction." They specifically mentioned journalists Gowhar Geelani, Masrat Zahra, Naseer Ganai, and Peerzada Ashiq, reiterating that "general prohibitions on the dissemination of information based on vague ideas, including 'false news' or 'non-objective information' are incompatible with international standards for restrictions on freedom of expression." [95] [96]

The J&K administration released a new Media Policy-2020 on 15 May 2020, stating that "any individual or group indulging in fake news, unethical or anti-national activities or plagiarism shall be de-empaneled besides being proceeded against under law." [97] Writing for EPW, Geeta wrote that the policy would "make citizens passive recipients of the information" disseminated by the government. [98] The Indian Express published an editorial stating that "at a time when democratic political voices remain missing" in the Union Territory, the policy is an "affront, intended to keep control of the narrative of J&K." The Press Council of India stated that the provisions regarding fake news affect the free functioning of the press. [99]

Countermeasures

Fighting fake news How to Spot Fake News.pdf
Fighting fake news

Fact checking organisations

Fact-checking in India has become a business, spurning the creation of fact-checking websites such as BOOM, Alt News, Factly and SMHoaxSlayer. [100] [101] Media houses also have their own fact-checking departments now such as the India Today Group, Times Internet has TOI Factcheck and The Quint has WebQoof. [102] [103] India Today Group, Vishvas.news, Factly, Newsmobile, and Fact Crescendo (all International Fact-Checking Network certified) are Facebook partners in fact-checking. [100]

Google has introduced a new feature called "About This Result" to combat misinformation. This feature allows users to assess information and understand its source. It is available globally and supports nine Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Punjabi. The feature provides additional context, empowering users to make informed decisions about which websites to visit and determine the most useful results. [104]

Grassroots measures

In some parts of India like Kannur in Kerala, the government conducted fake news classes in government schools. [105] Some say the government should conduct more public-education initiatives to make the population more aware of fake news. [106]

In 2018, Google News launched a program to train 8,000 journalists in seven official Indian languages, including English. The program, Google's largest training initiative in the world, would spread awareness of fake news and anti-misinformation practices such as fact-checking. [107]

Countermeasures by social media companies

In India, Facebook has partnered with fact-checking websites such as BOOM [30] and Webqoof by The Quint. Following over 30 killings linked to rumours spread over WhatsApp, WhatsApp introduced various measures to curb the spread of misinformation, which included limiting the number of people a message could be forwarded to as well as introducing a tip-line among other measures such as suspending accounts and sending cease-and-desist letters. [108] [109] WhatsApp also added a small tag, forwarded, to relevant messages. They also started a course for digital literacy and came out with full page advertisements in newspapers in multiple languages. [110] Twitter has also taken action to curb the spread of fake news such as deleting accounts. [111]

Law enforcement

In 2022, the Tamil Nadu Government announced formation of a special Social Media Monitoring Centre, under Tamil Nadu Police "to monitor and curb the spread of fake news and misinformation online". [112]

See also

Related Research Articles

Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."

Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such checking done in-house by the publisher to prevent inaccurate content from being published; when the text is analyzed by a third party, the process is called external fact-checking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misinformation</span> Incorrect or misleading information

Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation can exist without specific malicious intent; disinformation is distinct in that it is deliberately deceptive and propagated. Misinformation can include inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths. In January 2024, the World Economic Forum identified misinformation and disinformation, propagated by both internal and external interests, to "widen societal and political divides" as the most severe global risks within the next two years.

Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian news agency that offers syndicated multimedia news feeds to news bureaus in India. The company was established by Prem Prakash in 1971 and, under the name TVNF, it soon became the first agency in India to syndicate video news. Drawing upon connections within the Indian government, ANI expanded greatly during the early 2000s. After a period of downturn, the company regained its monopolistic position; as of 2019, it is India's largest television news agency, and as of 2024, the largest newswire service.

State-sponsored Internet propaganda is Internet manipulation and propaganda that is sponsored by a state. States have used the Internet, particularly social media to influence elections, sow distrust in institutions, spread rumors, spread disinformation, typically using bots to create and spread contact. Propaganda is used internally to control populations, and externally to influence other societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudarshan News</span> Indian Hindi language news channel

Sudarshan News is an Indian right-wing news channel. It was founded in 2005 by Suresh Chavhanke, the chairman and editor-in-chief. Chavhanke was a long-term volunteer of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also associating with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS. He asserts that he practices ideology-driven journalism and prefers that the news programs on his channel be viewed as opinionated campaigns.

Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, these websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Fake news websites monetize their content by exploiting the vulnerabilities of programmatic ad trading, which is a type of online advertising in which ads are traded through machine-to-machine auction in a real-time bidding system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fake news</span> False or misleading information presented as real

Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term fake news was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information presented as news. It has also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavorable to them. Further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. In some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.

Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. Alt News was a signatory partner of the International Fact-Checking Network until April 2020.

The media coverage of the 2019 India-Pakistan standoff was criticised for largely being "jingoistic" and "nationalistic", to the extent of the media war-mongering and the battle being fought between India and Pakistan through newsrooms. During the escalation, fake videos and misinformation were prevalent on the social media which were further reported to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan. Once tensions started de-escalating, the media coverage shifted to comparisons being made between "India and Pakistan" and "Narendra Modi and Imran Khan" in terms of who won the "perception battle".

<i>OpIndia</i> Indian far-right pro-Hindutva news portal

OpIndia is an Indian far-right news website known for frequently publishing misinformation. Founded in December 2014, the website has published fake news and Islamophobic commentary on many occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 misinformation</span> False or misleading virus information

False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Many countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant.

Fake news in the Philippines refers to the general and widespread misinformation or disinformation in the country by various actors. It has been problematic in the Philippines where social media and alike plays a key role in influencing topics and information ranging from politics, health, belief, religion, current events, aid, lifestyle, elections and others. Recently, it has evolved to be a rampant issue against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the 2022 Philippine general election.

Godi media (Hindi pronunciation:[ˈɡoːdiː]; lit. 'media sitting on lap'; idiomatic equivalent: 'lapdog media'; is a term coined and popularised by veteran Indian journalist Ravish Kumar for "sensationalist and biased Indian print and TV news media, which openly supports the ruling NDA government ". The term is a pun on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has become a common way to refer to television and other media that are perceived as "mouthpieces" of the leading party of the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines consists of disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic propagated by various sources.

Logically is a British multinational technology startup company that specializes in analyzing and fighting disinformation. Logically was founded in 2017 by Lyric Jain and is based in Brighouse, England, with offices in London, Mysore, Bangalore, and Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rumor Scanner Bangladesh</span> Bangladeshi fact checking website

Rumor Scanner Bangladesh is a fact-checking and information verification organization of Bangladesh which was recognized by the International Fact Checking Network. Their IFCN fact-checking license has been expired since July 2022. The organization was established on March 17, 2020. Its main aim is to prevent ongoing rumors and fake news of Bangladesh and convey the correct information to the people. It publishes fact-check stories through web content as well as digital banners. Its headquarters is located in Dhaka.

Following the Student–People's uprising which ousted Bangladesh's longtime authoritarian Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a strong ally of India, the Indian media outlets, along with India-based social media accounts, began disseminating disinformation against Bangladesh with an intent to destabilise the country. The themes include misleading or exaggerated reports on the post-resignation violence against Bangladesh's Hindu community, discrediting the backgrounds or activities of the cabinet members of interim government of Bangladesh. Sensationalist media outlets, especially those closely associated with the ruling party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, attempted to portray the uprising as an Islamist-backed military takeover of the country purportedly orchestrated by India's rivals, Pakistan & China.

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