Viral fake news on lockdown, earthquake busted | India News

India to impose lockdown from 29th March amid the rising Covid cases causing fatalities across the nation. ” This was among thousands of forwarded messages including, “Scientists estimate an earthquake of magnitude 9. 8 to strike the national capital, Delhi in the first week of April” and “The Supreme Court of India passes the bill recognizing registered marriage and civil unions of same sex couples”, that TOI recently busted as fake.
Under the ‘Times Verified’ campaign, readers send suspicious messages circulating on social media to this paper on the WhatsApp number 9819888887. To verify their credibility, our expert panel — made up of reporters, editors and representatives from the municipality and government — taps into its network of tr ustworthy sources. Launched nationally on November 21 last year, TOI’s editorial team has received over 1. 4 lakh messages, over a half of which turned out to be false.

Besides misleading news such as, “Infosys to lay off 15,000 of its Indian employees by 31st March 2023 to cut costs”, the deluge of recent misinformation also included sensational headlines like: “Khalistani Leader Amritpal Singh shot dead in Delhi”. Having ballooned beyond articles and tweets, fake news is becoming harder to distinguish from fact in the era of AI. Earlier this month, police in Bihar busted an online video that showed two purported migrant workers describing how they are being illtreated in Tamil Nadu. Police investigations found that the video had been shot in a rented house in Patna, and not in Tamil Nadu.
“Fake news can misguide millions of people at once and this will be in direct contradiction with the fundamentals of democracy which form the bedrock of our existence,” said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud at an event last week. Stating that misinformation has the capability of creating a rift between communities, he termed responsible journalism the engine which drives democracy towards a better future.
This scenario makes the job of our chain-breakers even more relevant. Among this army of truth-seekers are Maharashtra’s Sunil Basak, Karnataka’ s Hari Krishnan, Tamil Nadu’s Param, West Bengal’s Moushumi and Gujarat’s Sailesh Verukhia. To join them in the battle against lies, all you have to do is send anxiety-causing headlines doing the rounds of social media networks to our panel and let the green tick in the ‘Times Verified’ logo counter the tyranny of the grey curved arrow of forwards.