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 flooding of fake news and manipulated content on social media targeting the protesters and Delhi police alike. Members of the ruling BJP were seen to be sharing videos, falsely insinuating that the students of Aligarh Muslim University were raising anti-Hindu slogans. [17] The Supreme Court of India asked the central government of India to consider "a plea for publicising aims, objectives and the benefits of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to weed out fake news that was being circulated on the issue." [18] [19] BJP leaders rolled out a phone number, asking people to give a missed call to show support for the act. The number was widely shared on twitter, with fake claims luring people with companionship with lonely women and free subscriptions to streaming platforms like Netflix. [20]

Indian security and intelligence agencies reportedly identified around 5,000 social media handles from Pakistan which were "spreading fake and false propaganda" on CAA, some using "deep fake videos" in the process. [21] Social media platforms had mediators on look-out to curb fake, incendiary and communal news. [22]

Old pictures and videos were shared on social media, even by prominent personalities, giving a communal spin to the protests. Old images were also used to insinuate that the protests involved violence in many sites. [23] [24] [25] Similarly, some old clips involving police brutality were reposted and falsely purported to be linked with crackdown on CAA protesters. [17] BJP's IT Cell Head Amit Malviya shared distorted videos misrepresenting anti-CAA protesters to be chanting "Pakistan Zindabad" and disturbing 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 at least "265 fake local news websites in more than 65 countries are managed by Indian influence networks with the aim of influencing international institutions along with elected representatives and swaying the public perception of Pakistan." [38] By 2020, the number of such pro-India fake news websites was revealed to have grown to 750 across 116 countries in an investigation titled the Indian Chronicles. [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 being run by an Indian company called the Srivastava Group, which was responsible for anti-Pakistan lobbying efforts in Europe and was persistently linked to the dissemination of fake news and propaganda. [44] [39] The websites, which are known to copy syndicated news content from other media outlets in order to appear as real news websites, plant opinion pieces and stories critical of Pakistan from individuals who belong to NGOs linked to their network. [44]

The network attempts to influence decision-making organisations such as the UN Human Rights Council and European Parliament, where its primary aim is to "discredit Pakistan". [39] In October 2019, the network sponsored a controversial trip of a group of far-right European Parliament MPs to Indian-administered Kashmir, during which they also met prime minister Narendra Modi. [44]

Domains operated by the group included the "Manchester Times", "Times of Los Angeles", "Times of Geneva" and "New Delhi Times" among others. [44] A common theme of their coverage tends to be on issues such as secessionist groups, minorities, human rights cases and terrorism in Pakistan. [44] [45] [46]

The EU Chronicle, a Srivasta Group website which claimed to deliver news from the European Union, was found to have op-ed articles "falsely attributed to their authors, some of them European lawmakers", journalists who seemed to not exist, text plagiarised from other sources, and content mostly focused on Pakistan. [45] EPToday, another news website which highlighted anti-Pakistan material, was forced to shut down after it was similarly exposed according to Politico Europe. [45]

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

It was also noted that following EU DisinfoLab's first report in 2019, some domains had closed only to be resurrected under different names later. [46] Researchers state that the main target of the fake websites' content is not readers in Europe, but rather mainstream Indian news outlets such as ANI [39] and Yahoo News India [46] who routinely reuse and republish their material and act as their conduit to hundreds of millions in India. [45]

In 2023, several Indian media outlets spread disinformation regarding a padlocked grave at Hyderabad in India and claimed it was a grave in Pakistan which had been locked to prevent the dead bodies from being raped. These stories went viral and led to severe defamation of Pakistan and its reputation. [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]

2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement

Gobinda Pramanik, Former Secretary General of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, criticized the Indian media, suggesting that they inaccurately portrayed the situation. Pramanik stated that the incidents of vandalism targeted only the homes of certain Awami League leaders, both Hindu and Muslim, who had a history of aggressive actions. He further noted that members of opposition parties, including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, were involved in protecting Hindu temples and homes from potential attacks. [65] [66] But the incumbent General Secretary of the group dismissed his statement as a lie. [67]

BNP leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy also denied claims made 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 own role as a former minister in a BNP-led government and as a member of the party's highest decision-making body. [68]

Numerous India-based social media accounts circulated several misleading videos and images about attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus, using hashtags such as #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus and #SaveBangladeshiHindus, which were subsequently debunked by several fact-checking organizations. [69] A false report also claimed that the house of Bangladeshi cricketer Liton Das had been set on fire, which was later debunked. [70] [71] Das himself refuted the claim in a Facebook post. [72] Several television news outlets also ran headlines falsely claiming that the violence constituted an "act of genocide" and a "pogrom", while an alleged arson attack on a Hindu temple was later found to have occurred at an adjacent Awami League office. [73]

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. [74]

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. [74]

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. [75]

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. [82] Fake news is also spread through Facebook and Twitter. [83] [84] [85]

WhatsApp

As of November 2023, WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform owned by Meta, had 400 million users in India. [86] [87] India's popular WhatsApp University has expanded rapidly as a trusted sources for news, facts and real truths. [88]

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. [89] 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. [90]

Institutional

Internet shutdowns are used by the government as a way to control social media rumours from spreading. [54] [91] Ideas such as linking Aadhaar to social media accounts has been suggested to the Supreme Court of India by the Attorney General. [92]

In November 2019, the Indian ministry of information and broadcasting planned to set up a FACT checking module to counter the circulation of fake news by continuous monitoring of online news sources and publicly visible social media posts. The module will work on the four principles of "Find, Assess, Create and Target" (FACT). The module will initially will be run by information service officers. [93] Near the end of 2019, the Press Information Bureau (which comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) set up a fact-checking unit which would focus on verifying news related to the government. [94] [95]

Journalists in Kashmir have been subjected to repeated criminal proceedings which led to three UN OHCHR Special Rapporteurs expressing concerns over a "pattern of silencing independent reporting on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir through the threat of criminal sanction", specifically mentioning journalists Gowhar Geelani, Masrat Zahra, Naseer Ganai and Peerzada Ashiq and reiterating the position affirmed at the 2017 Joint Declaration on Fake News, Disinformation and Propaganda that "general prohibitions on the dissemination of information based on vague and ambiguous ideas, including "false news" or "non objective information" are incompatible with international standards for restrictions on freedom of expression." [96] [97]

The J&K administration released a new Media Policy-2020 on 15 May 2020 which read that "any individual or group indulging in fake news, unethical or anti national activities or in plagiarism shall be de-empaneled besides being proceeded against under law". [98] Writing for EPW, Geeta wrote that the policy would serve to "make citizens passive recipients of the information" disseminated by the government. [99] 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. [100]

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. [101] [102] 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. [103] [104] India Today Group, Vishvas.news, Factly, Newsmobile, and Fact Crescendo (all International Fact-Checking Network certified) are Facebook partners in fact-checking. [101]

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. [105]

Grassroots measures

In some parts of India like Kannur in Kerala, the government conducted fake news classes in government schools. [106] Some say the government should conduct more public-education initiatives to make the population more aware of fake news. [107]

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. [108]

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. [109] [110] 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. [111] Twitter has also taken action to curb the spread of fake news such as deleting accounts. [112]

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". [113]

See also

Related Research Articles

Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. 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 feed to news bureaus in India and elsewhere. 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 a monopoly position; as of 2019, it is the biggest television news agency in India. In 2018, it reported revenues of ₹68.23 crore and a net profit of ₹9.91 crore.

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.

<i>Swarajya</i> (magazine) Indian right-wing magazine

Swarajya is an Indian right-wing monthly print magazine and news portal. The publication reports favourably on the Bharatiya Janata Party and has published misinformation on many occasions.

<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, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Myanmar, and the United States. Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia, or North Macedonia among others. Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.

<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 presented as 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.

Disinformation attacks are strategic deception campaigns involving media manipulation and internet manipulation, to disseminate misleading information, aiming to confuse, paralyze, and polarize an audience. Disinformation can be considered an attack when it occurs as an adversarial narrative campaign that weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgements—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies. Disinformation attacks use media manipulation to target broadcast media like state-sponsored TV channels and radios. Due to the increasing use of internet manipulation on social media, they can be considered a cyber threat. Digital tools such as bots, algorithms, and AI technology, along with human agents including influencers, spread and amplify disinformation to micro-target populations on online platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

Godi media (Hindi pronunciation:[ɡoːdiː]; 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 supports the ruling BJP-led 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.

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