In July 2017, a picture of a woman being stripped of her saree and harassed in daylight somewhere in West Bengal was being circulated on WhatsApp and social media. Messages accompanying the picture said, “In Baduria, Hindu women are getting molested. Hindus who are still supporting TMC (Trinamool Congress), are you Hindu? If you are born of a Hindu father, then you will roar against these radicals. All Hindus of West Bengal must unite.”
In reality, the picture was a still from a Bhojpuri movie called Aurat Khilona Nahin, released in 2014, found Alt News, a website that fact-checks and debunks misinformation.
Now, two years after the launch of Alt News in 2017, Pratik Sinha, the founder, has published a book called India Misinformed: The True Story that he co-authored with two of his colleagues, Dr Sumaiya Shaik and Arjun Sidharth. The book is an extension of the findings of Alt News, and is divided into sections of people targeted through fake news – minorities, political leaders and other individuals including actors and journalists.
Rahul Gandhi, most targeted
“The most targeted is Rahul Gandhi (Congress president) and after him Narendra Modi (Prime Minister),” says Pratik Sinha, who used to be a software engineer formerly working in the US, and got interested in busting fake news when he began working with his activist parents back in India. He had found the circulation of fake news pretty rampant even back in 2013 – multiple images passed as Gujarat development model. But the potential of social media struck him in 2016, after four Dalit boys were flogged for skinning a dead cow in Una, Gujarat.
“There was a march to the village that I documented. It became popular and I realised how powerful social media can be when used properly. I quit freelancing as a software engineer in 2016; and Alt News was born in a room in Ahmedabad the next year,” says Pratik.
In two years, Pratik and his team have busted more than a thousand cases of false news, images, and posts being shared across social media. “The problem is from 2014 onwards, or perhaps even before that, the country has gone through enormous polarisation in terms of religion, politics etc. When you live in such a polarised environment, your prejudices, biases become stronger. Then you are more likely to fall for misinformation. That’s one reason for the rise of it. Another reason is the lack of digital literacy, when even the most obviously photoshopped images are believed to be true.”
Minorities targeted
The whole first section of the book would prove this – how minorities, especially Muslims, have been targeted through fake news. These include photoshopped newspaper headlines or entirely fictional pieces of information – such as a temple discovered under a mosque in Karnataka when the image is of a Buddhist temple in China, or an Amritsar train accident blamed on a Muslim driver when it was later found out to be a driver called Arvind Kumar. But by the time the truth comes out, the damage would already be done – the message would have reached thousands or more and many of them would have believed it. And, their prejudice against a community would have grown stronger.
It is no easy job that Pratik and team have been doing sincerely for the last two years. The number of people actually fact-checking the information they get on their phone, is very small, he says. “Let’s say, there are x number of people reading misinformation, and y number of people reading fact check. What is the common number between x and y? The greater this common number the better we are doing as fact checkers. At this point in time, it is not so large. Most people falling for misinformation are not reading fact check.”
Solution lies in education
Figuring out ways to deal with this dangerous trend, Pratik has decided to go into education – start at school and college. He has spoken at various colleges, and is in talks with people in the field of education to design a school curriculum that can teach kids how to deal with the world of internet, what to believe and what not to.
Law cannot really help here, Pratik says, for criminalising the act of sending misinformation is not possible. “I will give you two examples. You get a forwarded message that children are getting kidnapped by a certain group of people. A parent or a concerned individual may feel they should forward it to all their relatives and friends. They are acting out of fear and it cannot be criminalised. It also happens in medical misinformation. When the Nipah virus broke out in Kerala, a message came out that Gelsamum 200 – a homeopathic pill -- will protect you. That was wrong information but those who forward this message thinking that it would protect one from Nipah, cannot be treated as criminals.”
But when it comes to political misinformation, it is more often out of malice and prejudice. Pratik’s book has a separate category for Rahul Gandhi called ‘The favourite for targeted propaganda’, and another for Jawaharlal Nehru. Another section includes PM Modi and the BJP, but then there is also a separate category for ‘building brand Modi’.
“It is true that the right wing is more active (in spreading misinformation) and has a wide social network. But then, other parties have realised how misinformation can be used [for their gain]. They didn’t want to be part of the solution, but are part of the problem,” Pratik says.
Election time
It is the time of general elections and Pratik says there is not much change in the pattern of false news flowing across the country. Sadly, the long-term pattern of targeting minorities through misinformation continues to be a cause of worry. But Pratik is hopeful that it can be changed when people are made aware. “When you are a child you don’t know how to cross the road till someone teaches you to. People have not been taught how to cross the road when it comes to misinformation. The training should begin from a young age, to not just Google search a text, but an image or video too.”
“Our aim is to get more and more people to ask the question if what they read on their phone is a true piece of information,” Pratik says.
The solution, therefore, starts with asking a simple question.