[go: up one dir, main page]
Wikipedia

Fake news in India

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]

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

See also: Anti-Pakistan sentiment § India

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

Further information: Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Further information: 2023 Israel–Hamas war and Disinformation in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

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

See also: 2024 Bangladesh anti-Hindu violence § Disinformation

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]

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.[67]

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.[68] A false report also 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 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.[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 Facebook and Twitter.[82][83][84]

WhatsApp

See also: Indian WhatsApp lynchings

As of November 2023, WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform owned by Meta, had 400 million users in India.[85][86]

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.[87] 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.[88]

Institutional

Internet shutdowns are used by the government as a way to control social media rumours from spreading.[54][89] Ideas such as linking Aadhaar to social media accounts has been suggested to the Supreme Court of India by the Attorney General.[90]

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.[91] 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.[92][93]

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."[94][95]

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".[96] Writing for EPW, Geeta wrote that the policy would serve to "make citizens passive recipients of the information" disseminated by the government.[97] 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.[98]

Countermeasures

 
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.[99][100] 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.[101][102] India Today Group, Vishvas.news, Factly, Newsmobile, and Fact Crescendo (all International Fact-Checking Network certified) are Facebook partners in fact-checking.[99]

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.[103]

Grassroots measures

In some parts of India like Kannur in Kerala, the government conducted fake news classes in government schools.[104] Some say the government should conduct more public-education initiatives to make the population more aware of fake news.[105]

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.[106]

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.[107][108] 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.[109] Twitter has also taken action to curb the spread of fake news such as deleting accounts.[110]

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".[111]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018" (PDF). Centre for Internet and Society. 31 January 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020. UNESCO has made the following distinction
  2. ^ "Social media in India fans fake news". The Interpreter – Lowy Institute. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  3. ^ Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis (25 March 2019). "Disinformation is everywhere in India". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  4. ^ Bengali, Shashank (4 February 2019). "How WhatsApp is battling misinformation in India, where 'fake news is part of our culture'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  5. ^ ""Lot Of Misinformation in India Spreads On WhatsApp": US Expert". NDTV. 15 September 2018. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  6. ^ a b Badrinathan, Sumitra (2021). "Educative Interventions to Combat Misinformation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in India". American Political Science Review. 115 (4): 1325–1341. doi:10.1017/S0003055421000459. ISSN 0003-0554. S2CID 236238203. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  7. ^ Higdon, Nolan (2020). The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-34787-8. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  8. ^ Tandoc, Edson C.; Lim, Zheng Wei; Ling, Richard (7 February 2018). "Defining "Fake News"". Digital Journalism. 6 (2). Taylor & Francis: 137–153. doi:10.1080/21670811.2017.1360143. ISSN 2167-0811. S2CID 158143268. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  9. ^ Cherilyn, Ireton; Julie, Posetti (17 September 2018). Journalism, "Fake News" & Disinformation: Handbook for Journalism Education and Training. UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-100281-6.
  10. ^ Bansal, Snigdha Poonam, Samarth (1 April 2019). "Misinformation Is Endangering India's Election". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Two faces: Editorial on BJP govt's manipulative ways to spread fake news". telegraphindia.com. 20 June 2022. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  12. ^ Purohit, Kunal (10 March 2020). "Misinformation, fake news spark India coronavirus fears". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  13. ^ "Boiled Garlic Water For Treating Coronavirus? Not Really". Boomlive. 1 February 2020. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  14. ^ "Coronavirus update: Health worker arrested for spreading fake news". Business Today. 16 March 2020. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  15. ^ Suffian, Mohammad (14 March 2020). "Odisha: 32-year-old held for spreading fake news on coronavirus on social media". India Today. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  16. ^ Dore, Bhavya (14 April 2020). "How 300 Indian scientists are fighting fake news about COVID-19". World Economic Forum. Archived from the original on 12 May 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  17. ^ a b Goel, Kritika (18 December 2019). "Here's Your Round-Up of All the Fake News Around CAA Protests". TheQuint. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  18. ^ "Supreme Court asks Centre to consider publicising info about CAA to curb circulation of fake news". The Hindu. PTI. 18 December 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  19. ^ PTI (18 December 2019). "SC asks Centre to consider publicising info about CAA to curb circulation of fake news". Rajya Sabha TV. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  20. ^ Chatterji, Rohini (4 January 2020). "BJP Resorts To Fake 'Lonely Woman' On Twitter To Drum Up Support For CAA". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  21. ^ "Around 5,000 Pak social media handles spread fake news on CAA". IANS. 16 December 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2024 – via Outlook.
  22. ^ Alawadhi, Karan Choudhury & Neha (16 December 2019). "CAA protests: 15,000 social media mediators fight to root out fake news". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  23. ^ Chaudhuri, Pooja (28 January 2020). "Tarek Fatah, the unrelenting fake news peddler who targets Indian Muslims regularly". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 13 December 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  24. ^ "Telangana BJP MP shares old video with 'communal' claim to question CAA protests". The News Minute. 27 December 2019. Archived from the original on 15 March 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  25. ^ Mishra, Shweta (21 December 2019). "Fact Check: These viral images are NOT related to recent anti-CAA protests | Newsmobile". Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  26. ^ Chaudhuri, Pooja (10 February 2020). "Amit Malviya's fake news fountain: 16 pieces of misinformation spread by the BJP IT cell chief". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  27. ^ "Clip, flip and Photoshop: Anatomy of fakes in Indian elections". India Today. 28 May 2019. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  28. ^ Bansal, Samarth; Poonam, Snigdha (1 April 2019). "Misinformation Is Endangering India's Election". The Atlantic. ISSN 1072-7825. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  29. ^ "Junk news and misinformation prevalent in Indian election campaign". University of Oxford. 13 May 2019. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  30. ^ a b Phartiyal, Sankalp; Kalra, Aditya (2 April 2019). "Despite being exposed, fake news thrives on social media ahead of..." Reuters. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  31. ^ Perrigo, Billy (25 January 2019). "How Whatsapp Is Fueling Fake News Ahead of India's Elections". Time. Archived from the original on 3 December 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  32. ^ Ponniah, Kevin (6 April 2019). "WhatsApp: The 'black hole' of fake news in India's election". BBC. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  33. ^ Gilbert, David (11 April 2019). "Modi's trolls are ready to wreak havoc on India's marathon election". Vice. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  34. ^ Sidharth, Arjun (18 May 2019). "How misinformation was weaponized in 2019 Lok Sabha election – A compilation". Alt News. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  35. ^ Languages Included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constution [sic] Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  36. ^ "Alarming lessons from Facebook's push to stop fake news in India". The Economic Times. Bloomberg. 21 May 2019. Archived from the original on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  37. ^ "Facebook removes 1 million abusive accounts a day to counter fake news in India". Firstpost. 9 April 2019. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  38. ^ Bhargava, Yuthika (14 November 2019). "265 fake news websites in over 65 countries managed by Indian influence networks: study". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  39. ^ a b c d Hussain, Abid; Menon, Shruti (10 December 2020). "The dead professor and the vast pro-India disinformation campaign". BBC. Archived from the original on 12 November 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2020. The network was designed primarily to "discredit Pakistan internationally" and influence decision-making at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and European Parliament, EU DisinfoLab said.
  40. ^ Kumar, Basant (3 January 2020). "Fake news, lies, Muslim bashing, and Ravish Kumar: Inside OpIndia's harrowing world". Newslaundry. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  41. ^ Vij, Shivam (27 May 2020). "India's anti-Muslim fake news factories are following the anti-Semitic playbook". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  42. ^ Surendran, Vivek (30 March 2018). "Postcard News editor arrested for spreading fake news, BJP leaders call for release". India Today. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  43. ^ Dutta, Amrita Nayak (2 May 2019). "Postcard, Indiatimes in Poynter list of 513 'fake news' websites". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  44. ^ a b c d e Carmichael, Flora; Hussain, Abid (16 December 2019). "Pro-Indian 'fake websites targeted decision makers in Europe'". BBC. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020. The websites all copy syndicated content from news organisations to make them look like real news sites. They then plant anti-Pakistan stories and opinion pieces from employees of NGOs linked to the network to serve India's lobbying interests, researchers found.
  45. ^ a b c d Saeed, Saim; Kayali, Laura (9 December 2020). "New pro-India EU website enrolling MEPs campaigns against Pakistan". Politico. Archived from the original on 6 January 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  46. ^ a b c d e Jahangir, Ramsha (10 December 2020). "Indian network lobbying against Pakistan exposed". Dawn. Archived from the original on 10 February 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  47. ^ "Indian media spreads fake 'padlocked grave' image to discredit Pakistan". Express Tribune. 1 May 2023. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  48. ^ Chaturvedi, Anumeha (12 August 2019). "Kashmir rumour mill on social media goes into overdrive". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  49. ^ "Kashmir 'fake news' barrage raises fears for India elections". Gulf News. AFP. 8 March 2019. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  50. ^ "Fact Check: Photo showing Syrian child protecting his sister fudged as kids from Kashmir". India Today. 1 November 2019. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  51. ^ "Fact Check: Not CCTV clip of Pulwama blast, old footage from Iraq being pushed on social media". The Indian Express. 17 February 2019. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  52. ^ "FAKE ALERT: Image from Syrian civil war shared as one from Kashmir". The Times of India. 13 September 2019. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  53. ^ "How these J&K officers are fighting fake news on Kashmir". Outlook India. 19 August 2019. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  54. ^ a b Bhatt, Parjanya; K.J., Shashidhar (14 August 2019). "Communications blackout in Kashmir: A quick fix that can backfire". Observer Research Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  55. ^ "Fake news galore on Kashmir". The Telegraph. Kolkota. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  56. ^ Tripathi, Rahul; Irfan, Hakeem (13 August 2019). "Twitter told to take down handles spreading fake news about Kashmir Valley". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 23 July 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  57. ^ Deodia, Arjun (6 August 2019). "Fact Check: No, Indian Army didn't burn down houses in Kashmir". India Today. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  58. ^ DelhiAugust 21, PTI (21 August 2019). "Pak claim of killing six Indian security personnel fake: Army". India Today. Retrieved 29 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  59. ^ "Army denies Shehla Rashid's claims of excesses by security forces in J&K". The Times of India. 20 August 2019. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  60. ^ "India's Kashmir doctrine: Claims of torture, night raids, mass detentions". TRT World. 19 August 2019. Archived from the original on 30 October 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  61. ^ Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Gettleman, Jeffrey (10 August 2019). "Inside Kashmir, Cut Off From the World: 'A Living Hell' of Anger and Fear". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  62. ^ a b PTI (16 September 2019). "Supreme Court asks government to restore normalcy in Kashmir". India Today. Archived from the original on 18 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  63. ^ Hashmi, Sameer (29 August 2019). "Kashmiris allege torture in army crackdown". Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  64. ^ a b Owen Jones, Marc (16 October 2023). "Analysis: Why is so much anti-Palestinian disinformation coming from India?". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 16 October 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  65. ^ "Hindu leader refutes false claims by Indian media regarding attacks in Bangladesh". Daily Sun. August 2024. Archived from the original on 8 August 2024. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  66. ^ "Fact check: False claims fuel ethnic tensions in Bangladesh". DW. Archived from the original on 8 August 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  67. ^ "শেখ হাসিনা ইস্যুতে ভারতকে কঠোর বার্তা দিল বিএনপি". Jugantor. 9 August 2024. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  68. ^ "বাংলাদেশে হিন্দুদের ওপর হামলা নিয়ে ভারতে অপতথ্যের প্রচার". Prothomalo (in Bengali). 11 August 2024. Archived from the original on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  69. ^ "Did protesters set Hindu Bangladesh cricketer Liton Das' house on fire?". Deccan Chronicle. 7 August 2024. Archived from the original on 9 August 2024. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  70. ^ "Fact check: False claims fuel ethnic tensions in Bangladesh". Times of Oman. 8 August 2024. Archived from the original on 1 September 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  71. ^ "Litton denies rumors of attack on his home". Dhaka Tribune. 9 August 2024.
  72. ^ "The violence in Bangladesh after Hasina's ouster stirs fear within the country's Hindu minority". Associated Press. 14 August 2024. Archived from the original on 30 September 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  73. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Islamophobic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  74. ^ "Far-right spreads false claims about Muslim attacks in Bangladesh". BBC. 18 August 2024. Archived from the original on 18 August 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  75. ^ "Fake alert: Indian Army warns against imposter in uniform spreading false information". Zee News. 22 June 2019. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  76. ^ E, Chiluwa, Innocent; A, Samoilenko, Sergei (28 June 2019). Handbook of Research on Deception, Fake News, and Misinformation Online. IGI Global. p. 236. ISBN 9781522585374. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2020 – via Google Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  77. ^ "Arun Jaitley dismisses rumours of nano GPS chip on Rs 2000. But data show as many as cash fish catches have been done they had huge bundles of new currency note". Zee News. 9 November 2016. Archived from the original on 17 December 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  78. ^ Chaudhuri, Pooja; Patel, Jignesh (7 February 2019). "NaMo App promotes fake news factory 'The India Eye' and users can't block it even if they want to". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  79. ^ Thaker, Aria (29 January 2019). "Is Narendra Modi's NaMo app spreading fake news? A journalist finds a troubling pattern". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  80. ^ Bansal, Samarth (27 January 2019). "Narendra Modi App Has A Fake News Problem". HuffPost India. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  81. ^ Mohan, Shriya (26 April 2019). "Everybody needs a good lie". Business Line. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  82. ^ "WhatsApp in India: Scourge of violence-inciting fake news tough to tackle". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  83. ^ "WhatsApp: The 'black hole' of fake news in India's election". BBC News. 6 April 2019. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  84. ^ "Alarming lessons from Facebook's push to stop fake news in India". The Economic Times. 21 May 2019. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  85. ^ "WhatsApp Channels surpasses 500 million monthly active users". The Economic Times. 15 November 2023. ISSN 0013-0389. Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  86. ^ Jaiswal, Srishti (15 May 2024). "How Modi and the BJP turned WhatsApp into an election-winning machine". Rest of World. Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  87. ^ P, Deepak; Chakraborty, Tanmoy; Long, Cheng; G, Santhosh Kumar (2021). Data Science for Fake News: Surveys and Perspectives. The Information Retrieval Series. Vol. 42. Springer Nature. p. 8. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-62696-9. ISBN 978-3-030-62695-2. ISSN 1871-7500. S2CID 233451422. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  88. ^ George, Cherian (2016). Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and Its Threat to Democracy. MIT Press. pp. 96–99. ISBN 978-0-262-33607-9. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  89. ^ Bajoria, Jayshree (24 April 2019). "India Internet Clampdown Will Not Stop Misinformation". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 12 July 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  90. ^ PTI (20 August 2019). "Social media accounts need to be linked with Aadhaar to check fake news, SC told". India Today. Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  91. ^ "I&B team to counter fake news". The Times of India. 16 November 2019. Archived from the original on 6 October 2024. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  92. ^ "Press Information Bureau sets up unit to combat fake news related to government". The Hindu. PTI. 29 November 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 30 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  93. ^ "PIB establishes checking unit to combat fake news against government on social media". The Economic Times. 28 November 2019. Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  94. ^ "Mandates of the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression". OHCHR (PDF). 12 May 2020. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  95. ^ "Kashmir's Internet Siege - an ongoing assault on digital rights". JKCCS. August 2020. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  96. ^ "Jammu and Kashmir Media Policy 2020". Kashmir Life. 11 June 2020. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  97. ^ Seshu, Geeta (19 August 2020). "Kashmir Media Policy: Accentuating the Curbs on the Freedom of Press". Economic and Political Weekly: 7–8. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021.
  98. ^ "Press Council seeks J&K's reply on new media policy, says it affects functioning of free press". Outlook India. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  99. ^ a b "Facebook expands fact-checking network in India, adds 5 more partners to spot fake news". Business Today. 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  100. ^ Ananth, Venkat (7 May 2019). "Can fact-checking emerge as big and viable business?". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 1 June 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  101. ^ "Fact Check". India Today. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  102. ^ Gupta, Neha (2 January 2019). "Indian media fights fake news in run up to Lok Sabha elections". WAN-IFRA. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  103. ^ "Google fights back against misinformation in India, as fake news reaches all-time high". The Indian Express. 1 April 2023. Archived from the original on 11 June 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  104. ^ Biswas, Soutik (20 August 2018). "Fighting India's WhatsApp fake news war". BBC. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  105. ^ "The Wrong Way to Fight Fake News". Bloomberg. 18 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  106. ^ Christopher, Nilesh (19 June 2018). "Google wants to train 8000 journalists with new tools to fight fake news". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  107. ^ Iyengar, Rishi (2 April 2019). "WhatsApp now has a tip line for Indian election misinformation". CNN. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  108. ^ Rebelo, Karen (17 December 2018). "Inside WhatsApp's battle against misinformation in India". Poynter. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  109. ^ McLaughlin, Timothy (12 December 2018). "How WhatsApp Fuels Fake News and Violence in India". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  110. ^ Safi, Michael (6 February 2019). "WhatsApp 'deleting 2m accounts a month' to stop fake news". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  111. ^ "TN plans social media monitoring centre to curb fake news". The New Indian Express. 19 March 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2022.

Bibliography

  • Pratik Sinha (2019). India Misinformed: The True Story. HarperCollins India. ISBN 9789353028374

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fake_news_in_India&oldid=1256385837"