Many would not have imagined fake news becoming a major menace in the time of life-threatening pandemic. Yet, this has become business as usual in India.
Fake news is travelling much faster than the coronavirus in India. Even before the country reported its first case on 30 January, India’s social media was rife with fake posts, wild rumours, conspiracy theories, doctored videos about the disease’s origin, its subsequent spread and possible remedies. Once the country started reporting more cases, a torrent of fake messages began populating all major social media platforms, particularly Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, TikTok and so on. According to a recent report by the fact checking website BOOM, COVID-19 related fake news which began climbing in the third week of March took a massive spike in early April, particularly after the Tablighi Jamaat incident in Delhi. Out of 178 fact checks the website conducted since the onset of COVID-19 in the country, as much as 35% of them were fake videos, 29% images and a similar percentage were doctored messages on range of issues such as fake diagnosis and treatment, falsified quotes by celebrities with their photos, false notifications and lockdown guidelines among other. Worryingly, after the Tablighi incident, a substantial portion of fake news was directed to target a particular minority group depicting them as the vector of the virus, thereby complicating the collective fight against a rapidly spreading global pandemic. The growing fake news menace prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to flag the same in his recent address to the NAM summit.
India is not an exception to the virus of fake news. The world too is struggling with the deluge of misinformation about the evolving pandemic. The fake news surrounding the origin of the virus, its subsequent spread and threats it poses have nearly engulfed every nation, although with varied intensity. For instance, an influential study by the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP) found more than 240 million digital and social media messages globally on COVID-19 by mid-March, at an average of 3.08 million daily messages. A vast majority of these messages were found to be false or very misleading in their intent.
As per the data compiled by the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) between January and April, fake news particularly in social media can be put into five broad categories: content about causes, symptoms, and cures, spread of the virus, government documents and misrepresentation of comments, photos and videos of politicians, and conspiracy theories blaming certain country, groups or communities for the spread of virus. For instance, in January, a doctored video surfaced about how China is bombing its own citizens in Wuhan. This was followed by a flurry of videos of people prescribing miracle cures, some faking infections and using hot water and alcohol to prevent to develop immunity to virus. This has led individual countries to come out with appeals and messages to counter such fake news, with even the World Health Organisation (WHO) being compelled to brandish it as an “infodemic”, and appealed to people to believe in credible and scientific information.
The crisis of fake news is much more severe in India largely because of the country’s rapidly growing social media base and sloppy regulation of social media platforms. With as much as 376 million people using all kinds of social media platforms, India is on the radar of most social media companies with a rapidly growing internet base. However, compared to many countries, a large number of Indians are more susceptible to fake news and disinformation campaigns. Doctored videos and fake messages are routinely circulated via popular platforms such as WhatsApp and TikTok, sometimes triggering communal tensions, cases of lynching and negative stereotyping of individuals, specific groups and communities. However, many would not have imagined fake news becoming a major menace in the time of life-threatening pandemic. Yet, this has become business as usual in India.
As soon India reported its first COVID-19 case on 30 January, the country’s social media space suddenly experienced a massive spike in all kinds of information in the form of videos, short interviews, movies and documentaries on range of issues related to pandemic. One of the first prominent fake messages was home remedies of Vitamin C warding off the virus. In this regard, several fake videos started circulating in the name of well known doctor Devi Shetty recommending people to take hot water with lemon juice to improve immunity.
Even before fact-checking sites debunked this, millions of fake messages including catchy and appealing videos promoting the miracle power of cow urine, or Gaumutra, to cure the disease began to show up on most prominent social medial platform. Promoted by certain pro-Hindutva organisations, this piece of fake news made many people fall into false beliefs and organise Gaumutra drinking party in their own cities and towns. This alarmed India’s top medical research body (ICMR) to issue repeated appeals to people not to fall prey to such false cures. Curiously, the authorities issued warning to social media and print media houses to desist from spreading rumours as April Fools’ jokes related to the pandemic. Yet, in early April, a series of fake videos began circulating on possible extension of lockdown, imposition of emergency by the government and a possible takeover by army. This prompted Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI) to issue a clarification denying such rumours and fake news.
Even worse was the fake news about non-vegetarian food, particularly how consuming chicken could lead to the COVID-19 infection. This false news, which spread like wildfire, caused massive damage to the poultry industry as many people stopped consuming the meat. The misinformation resulted in hundreds of poultry farmers culling chickens worth crores of rupees, or in some cases set them free. From one reliable estimate, chicken farmers incurred a staggering Rs 2,000 crore loss due to fake rumours.
Yet, the most dangerous turn in India’s fake news epidemic is with regard to a flood of fake news that depicted an entire community as vector of disease. In the wake of the controversial congregation of Islamic missionary Tablighi Jamaat in mid-March in Delhi’s Nizamuddin leading to a huge spike in positive cases across many parts of India, a number of fake videos began spreading over WhatsApp and other social media platforms depicting the group as “Corona Villains.” A prominent video which claimed that some Muslims from Indonesia at Salem mosque in Tamil Nadu were deliberately licking kitchen items to “intentionally spread the novel coronavirus” was debunked by fact checking site AltNews, which attributed the old video to the Dawoodi Bohra community licking clean the utensils to ensure that not even a single grain of food was wasted.
Similarly, several fake videos were in circulation depicting Tablighi members in quarantine spitting at health workers and deliberately sneezing to spread the infections. This was later on found out to be doctored by a prominent political party handle to polarise the communities and depict the minority community as irresponsible.
More worryingly, a number of fake videos began circulating in Indore and other cities spreading rumours that Muslim youth were being picked up to be injected with COVID-19 positive blood at the quarantine centers. This rumour and consequent stigmatisation of the Tablighi Jamaat led to a series of violent attacks on healthcare professionals in Indore. In short, there are endless number of fake videos doing round on social media and other platforms that often depict Muslims irresponsible, violent and vector of the disease.
To sum up, India has been simultaneously fighting two viruses; one real and the other being the fake one but equally lethal. Fake news and misinformation have created numerous hurdles for governments at all levels; central, state and local, in their fight against the pandemic. Authorities have found repeatedly engaged in issuing clarifications to keep people away from not falling prey to such rumours and fake news. Even one saw the reports of social media companies such as Google, Facebook and other intermediary platforms in mid-February deciding to create an Information Trust Alliance (ITA) to tackle fake content. But it has borne little fruit if the latest findings from BOOM are to be seen.
With the existing Information Technology (IT) Act 2008 proving to be toothless to tackle fake content, the central and state governments have invoked the provisions of (Section 54) of the Disaster Management Act (DMA), 2005 to check the menace. A few states have imposed sedition laws to tackle the problem of fake news and violent attacks and stigmatisation of frontline health workers and paramedics. While hundreds of attackers have been arrested and several social media platforms have been issued with warnings, the fake news ecosystem surrounding the virus continue to flourish and significantly impacts the country’s inter-community relations along with its collective efforts against a life-threatening pandemic.
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Niranjan Sahoo, PhD, is a Senior Fellow with ORF’s Governance and Politics Initiative. With years of expertise in governance and public policy, he now anchors ...
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