Between June 2017 and July 2018, 33 people were lynched by mobs on baseless rumors of child abduction. All such incidents took place in small towns, and the victims of lynching were innocents.
After demonetization in 2017, a lot of people believed that Rs 2000 currency note was enabled with a GPS tracker and all people hoarding the money would be nabbed by the authorities. Though a rumour, it went viral on social platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.
All it was a Facebook post that incited the Basirhat riots in 2017. A screenshot of a post uploaded by a teenage boy mocking the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) led to rioting.
These and many other instances of fake news have caused immense damage to the social fabric of society. Innocents have been lynched, public figures mocked at, fad like blue whale challenge became viral, thanks to the misinformation content.
With over 400 million users, WhatsApp has the largest market in India. Even Facebook in India has 270 million users.
According to IMAI, India has 451 million monthly active users of the Internet, second only to China. These figures are staggering and show how India is catching up with the rest of the world in the use of the Internet. But the biggest danger is that a lot of content goes online unchecked.
Many of the first time users of the Internet aren’t aware of the fact that what’s fake and what’s genuine. In most cases, it is not even a 100% fake photo or a video. The creators of fake news rely on half-truths to make content viral, which looks real but is fake, and people fall for it.
Next time when you plan to forward a message or a photo or a video about which you aren’t sure, do the following.
Verify the link
If the story has an eye-catching headline, be wary of it. Always click on the link before sharing it further. The links have been designed to mislead you into believing that it is a real article. Unreliable sites sometimes create short URLs to mimic a specific website or give it a clickbait headline. Also, if it is a misleading article, readers will vent their frustration in the comments on the article or social media posts.
Check the website
If you are reading an article on a website that you haven’t visited or heard about before, take a step back from sharing the link and do a research first. Check for the ‘About Us’ or ‘Contact Us’ page for more information on the publisher.
If it is a satire or a parody site, it will come with a disclaimer. Still not confident? Do the Google search to find out more about the website.
Examine the URL
Does the URL look fishy? It happens many times when fake news creators use URLs similar to popular websites as bait. A website may have the same fonts and layouts or a similar-looking logo, but still can be a fake. There are tools on the Internet that can help you clone popular websites like BBC or NYT. URLs will be identical with one or more letters also common in another case and without HTTPS or a redirect to deceive the reader.
Is it widely reported?
If it’s such a remarkable story that is going to be viral, other news outlets should also have reported it. Search and find out other articles and videos on the same subject to know more about the quotes and sources mentioned in the story.
Sloppy writing
‘You won’t believe how this man became a MILLIONAIRE!!!!!’ kind of headlines with multiple exclamation marks, or CAPS LOCK is a big red flag. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, attention-seeking phrases, sloppy writing, etc. are a constant feature of such misleading articles. Most reputed websites have copy editors who make sure the reader gets an error-free content.
Also, check for quotes or lack of it. A news report always has quotes from various sources to bind the story together. If you don’t find quotes in a story, then it is most likely a blog or a column or an opinion piece or a fake article.
Question the intent
Don’t always believe what you see or read on the Internet. Not everything which is published online is real. If you find something odd, then use your analytical mind to question the intent of it. Even though you are reading an article on a reputed site, keep your mind open to logical reasoning.
Check for doctored images
Doctored images or manipulated images can be tricky to verify. Readers can use reverse image search to check morphed pictures. Upload the image that you want to confirm on images.google.com. Search results will tell you from where that image has been used, in what context, and what is the source. In most cases, a simple reverse image search will lead you to the original story behind the picture.
Install browser plug-ins
For doing a reverse image search, multiple plug-ins can be installed. RevEye is one such plug-in that will let you search the image in various search engines like Yandex (Russia), Baidu (China), and Bing (Microsoft). InVid is a plug-in which can help in verifying videos. It is a combination of reverse image search of screenshots and simple search.
Check on other fact-checking sites
If you aren’t sure about a story, go to the many fact-checking websites that have done the work for you. If it is a photo or a video that is going viral and is misleading, there are chances that someone must have done the fact-check. In India, you can visit websites like Alt News, Boom Live, SM Hoax-Slayer, Vishwas News, India Today, FactChecker. Times of India Fact check etc.
Flag it
Be the one who flags a doctored image or a misleading article or a disinformation video. Your friends and family may not like it, but it will be a good beginning if you counter them for a misleading or fake message. You can also send a tip to fact-checking websites when you come across something which needs a fact-check.
Be part of the conversation
Geetika Rustagi is a Teaching Fellow at Google News Lab and a Google News Initiative certified fact-checker.
