As the whole world is fighting against the global pandemic, thanks to unreliable sources, we have to deal with fake news about Covid19.
From presenting unverified home remedies to fight the virus to floating fake advisories asking people to avoid foods such as ice cream and chicken, Indians’ phones are being flooded with misinformation.
Nowadays, finding a reliable source of information is already a challenging task, now with social media platforms especially people are panicking over rumors making it more difficult to curb the disease.
The Role of WhatsApp
India is the biggest market for the Facebook-owned messaging platform. WhatsApp has over 400 million users in a country which had 468 million smartphones in 2019.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus misinformation, especially through WhatsApp, has risen. According to the company, “Normally, we don’t see such high levels of misinformation around health issues in India. Earlier, we would get two to three messages a week on health issues that we would fact check. Now, we get up to five to six messages every day, much of it on coronavirus.”
This message was circulating claiming to be a UNICEF message which recommended people to avoid ice creams and other cold foods and recommend frequent washing of clothes. The message was debunked shortly.
How responsible is social media in spreading fake news?
The panic over Covid19 meant that Indians were searching for answers on social media, YouTube which has more than 265 million monthly active users in India.
And oh boy the amount of fake news you get there!
There was a very popular video about the spread of the coronavirus that comes from a small Indian city, 270km from New Delhi.
Another video on Facebook claimed that the virus spreads from seafood!
The video is called This is Where the Coronavirus Came From, viewed 4.7 million times.
Another popular one that claimed that the virus was actually leaked from the Chinese government lab went viral, creating around 765,000 views.
On one hand, the optimistic videos and views on social media prove useful at a time when many of us are otherwise isolated from one another.
Unfortunately, for every expert who is trying to share useful accurate information here are thousands of users spreading rumors, sensationalism, and other forms of disinformation.
Daniel Rogers, an assistant professor at New York University, recently said, “It pulls everyone out of the woodwork,”
Political parties taking advantages of the situation
India is a country with diversified religion and a large portion of it believes in their faith.
Taking advantage of this, many political ‘advisories’ have offered bizarre cures – one said cow urine and cow dung could be cures, while yet another distributed cloves “energized by mantras”!
Boom, a fact-checking website reported the case of a man in southern India who killed himself after he saw numerous videos of coronavirus and ended up believing that he had contracted it.
According to the reports around 3,000 people are under surveillance of producing false news.
How to spot the correct sources for news?
We need to get updates, but looking out for the fake news is extremely essential.
Here are a few ways to keep an eye out in case you encountered a piece of fake news.
Source
Recheck the source of the news. Sources like “Stanford University” or medical experts like “Japanese doctors”. Check out the names and check for hyperlinks. If there is one, there has to be a page for it to recheck the information.
Logo
Look out if the logo is the same as it looks on the website.
The language
Credible journalists will be particular about the English or the language they use. They are less likely to make grammatical errors.
Also, capital letters or containing a lot of exclamation marks should raise your suspicions.
Fake social media accounts
Some of the fake accounts mimic the original ones.
For example, the unofficial Twitter handle @BBCNewsTonight, made an account to look like the legitimate @BBCNews account, sharing a fake story about the actor Daniel Radcliffe testing positive for coronavirus.
For these stories, media houses try to remove them pretty quickly.
Use fact-checking websites
There are websites like Boom to check facts. If you are in a doubt check these websites to get a better insight.
And if you do encounter fake news, do not hesitate to report it immediately!
Also, please do not ignore it as it may cost someone else a major panic attack just by reading false news.
In most social media platforms there are options to report the news and major sites like Facebook, LinkedIn are being very strict with the situation.
Did you come across any fake news? What did you do? Tell us at Skyram Technologies.
And for more such blogs, read here! Also, we hope you are following the WHO protocol for you and your family’s safety.
Stay safe, stay indoors.
