Skip to main content

Information warriors debunk the misinformation

Author: Annu Anand

India has seen a threefold increase in misinformation and fake newsrelated content in 2020 compared to 2019 as per the report by National Crime Records Bureau. Online misinformation is hard to stop. It's easy to pass along a rumor, even easier to believe one. The problem of identifying misinformation can be even more complex for new internet users, who have never had a chance to understand how to navigate the maze of online information.

Few information literacy activists are trying to reach their communities in rural and urban areas to spread awareness about the dangers of misinformation. Here are a few stories of such information warriors who are committed to developing critical thinking about online information they receive and exercising caution before sharing it with others.

A short voice note popped up on the mobile phones of several residents of Jaskandih, a tribal village in Jharkhand. In a short while, the message went viral in many villages in the area. The message was about a mob lynching that had never happened in any of the villages in the area but it led to violence and harmed many innocent people.

Laxmi Munda, a 20-year-old tribal girl of the village, immediately swung into action and sent a message to various WhatsApp groups not to believe the voice message as it was fake and had been verified through fact-checking. She also called up many people requesting them not to forward it further.

Jaskandih is located in Purbi Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, which is situated 5 km away from sub-district headquarter Golmuri-cum-Jugsalai and 16 km away from district headquarter Jamshedpur. The region is dominated by a tribal population. Brought up in a large and economically weaker family, Laxmi loves to study and learn new skills so that she can transform the lives of people in her village.

From a neighbouring state of West Bengal, Uzma Alam, a social worker based in Kolkata, used to share every message she received on her WhatsApp from different groups. She believed that since she was working in a social organisation it was her duty to spread the information she received to as many people as possible. She would forward anything which she thought was convincing and sound beneficial in her social circle. It never occurred to her that such information could be incorrect or even fake. But after 2020, Uzma realized that how unverified infor-mation does not benefit anyone but can also be harmful to many people if it is forwarded to others. She also learned how to verify such information and check the authenticity of URLs shared in forwarded messages.

Like Laxmi and Uzma, Karishma Choudhary a 23-year-old postgraduate Geology student in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, too is turned into a local champion and a gatekeeper of identifying fake news and misinformation and limiting its spread in her network - both online and offline.

Similarly, there are many others located in different parts of the country who are .  involved in spreading awareness about how to identify misinformation among remote communities as well as in their network.

Uzma realized that how unverified infor-mation does not benefit anyone but can also be harmful to many people if it is forwarded to others.

The common thing among all these debunkers of misinformation is that they have been trained under the media literacy program called Factshala launched by Internews with support from Google News Initiative and run in collaboration with DataLEADS. This media literacy program helps people in villages and small cities to better evaluate and assess online information.

After getting the two days of intensive training about debunking the misinformation most of these trainees have started critically assessing the information they receive on social media. Not only this they also developed the ability to identify misinformation and disinformation and were aware of various appropriate methods to verify audio, visual or text messages.

Once trained, they reach out to communities around them to help them understand and navigate their online information ecosystem. At the heart of the effort is a core team of 250 trainers – NGO workers, journalists, fact-checkers, media educators and community radio representatives – who are trained by and on a curriculum built with inputs from media literacy experts.

“I learned in the training program many techniques to identify misinformation and fake news and how to check such information through authenticated websites. We were taught why we should not forward any message before verifying it,” informs Laxmi, a second-year B.A. student of LBSM College at Karandih.

After the training program, she became aware of the menace of fake news on Social Media and how it can harm the social and cultural milieu of the people. She then decided to create awareness among people in her and nearby villages about dangers of the social media and educate them on how to spot misinformation appearing on their mobile phones.

She explains, “people in my village are not very literate. They tend to believe whatever they read or hear from others or on social media. They don’t know how to differentiate between right and wrong information or understand the meaning of rumors and fake news. This led me to take the learnings further and teach them how they need to consume messages coming from social media.”

Uzma,the 40-year-old social worker works as the convener of Calcutta Muslim Orphanage and also runs a small NGO. The orphanage shelters around 400 boys and girls of 5 to17 years. Uzma observed the availability of mobile phones among older children in the shelter home was affecting their personal and social lives due to prevalent misinformation, fake news, and WhatsApp chat. She got the opportunity to participate in the training program that was organised for NGOs, representing her organization Purple Foundation.

Uzma says the training made her aware of how unverified information does not benefit anyone but can also be harmful to many people if it is forwarded to others. She also learned how to verify such information and check the authenticity of URLs shared in forwarded messages.

She is also sharing the knowledge she gained with members of her community including friends and family. She now informs others to not forward information without being sure of its authenticity as that counts as irresponsible behaviour and can negatively impact people’s lives.

Laxmi explains, “people in my village are not very literate. They tend to believe whatever they read or hear from others or on social media. They don’t know how to differentiate between right and wrong information or understand the meaning of rumors and fake news.

Karishma expressed that she has no trust in any information she comes across unless she verifies it. As for her social media presence and friends, she shares, “whenever any of my friends puts up a story or post that turns out to be fake, I immediately inform them and ask them to delete it.”

During her internship, in a community radio station, Karishma organised a media literacy training program on her Radio platform for their local audiences, empowering them with key approaches and skills to consume information critically, especially online. Karishma was responsible for recording the program and this allowed her to get knowledge about the many harmful effects of fake news and techniques of fact-checking from the trainer of the program.

After her internship, Karishma has become very cautious about any information she receives online and even offline. She is wary of any URLs she receives and always makes it a point to check the domain name carefully before clicking on any link.

Karishma expressed that she has no trust in any information she comes across unless she verifies it. As for her social media presence and friends, she shares, “whenever any of my friends puts up a story or post that turns out to be fake, I immediately inform them and ask them to delete it.”

Karishma also shared that people don’t get convinced easily that particular information is fake and ignore the ones who call them out. She finds it challenging that sometimes people are adamant and don’t believe that a certain piece of information could be wrong because of their inherent biases. But with screenshots of fact-checked proof, they tend to believe it and delete or stop spreading fake news further.

Like these three many other trainees from different locations are involved in spreading awareness among their communities about how to access any information they receive on social media.

They are also organizing special small - scale training sessions or have formed the whatsApp group to provide the knowledge about checking the facts before believing any piece of information.

Laxmi informed that she had organised a small media literacy training in an adjoining village, Tupudang, for 30-35 people. It was attended by teenage girls, women of different age groups, and a few men of the village. She conducted the training in Hindi and local tribal dialect, using her mobile phone. She says, “Most of the villagers who participated in the training weren’t aware of the fact that wrong messages can also appear on their whats app.” Laxmi focused her training by giving them examples of recently circulated posts on their phones. For instance, many people were getting messages with some links on their WhatsApp asking them to share the same with 20 people and claim attractive prizes. Laxmi explained to the women that stop believing these links and don’t open them as these are fake messages. She says, her family members and relatives were also receiving the message supposedly on behalf of KBC that you have won the cash prizes and to accept it you need to send your account details. Laxmi warned them to protect themselves from such scams and advised everyone not to share their account details.

While talking about the challenges they face in training the community people, Karishma says, she feels that due to illiteracy and lack of education and awareness in village areas, people often fall for scams and misinformation. However, at her level, she makes it a point to educate everyone in her network on the issue, and plays a role in curbing the spread of false news and its negative consequences thereof. “

“They are not much aware of the authenticity of the information and have no means of verification of the information they hear. So information keeps on spreading due to their conversations. Unknowingly they become a key point of dissemination of false information if it reaches them,” shares Karishma.

In the rural areas, and especially the women there, are mostly illiterate and often become a cause in aiding the spread of misinformation via gossip, etc. Their only source of information is word of mouth and informal discussions which take place with other women of the village. They are not much aware of the authenticity of the information and have no means of verification of the information they hear. So information keeps on spreading due to their conversations. Unknowingly they become a key point of dissemination of false information if it reaches them,” shares Karishma.

At an individual level, Karishma now ensures that she informs her mother, relatives, and friends that they don’t believe anything they hear. She especially asks them to not talk about any issue that they are uncertain of and thereby stops them from spreading unverified or false information further.

Karishma has become now the information fact-checking point for all her friends and relatives. She tells others including her mother, “If you get to know that the news is false, you should inform the person that the news he or she is sharing is wrong. And always request them to not share it with others.”

“The FactShala training helps me in my mission to make citizens aware of the news imbalance and misinformation and increase media literacy in grassroots communities that need it the most,” says Soma Basu, an investigative journalist and fact-checker. “The most effective way to fight misinformation is to break the habit of uncritical sharing. The FactShala training not only help citizens realize that, but also enable them to share this knowledge with their peers” informs Soma.

Tuhin Mandal, a former school teacher and activist in Bilaspur, West Bengal has formed WhatsApp group in more than six districts of North Bengal comprising of students, teachers, workers, housemakers, men, and women to sift and debunk the fake news and misinformation spread in the area to protect the public from its harmful effects.

He started posting messages about the techniques of how to check the news before forwarding it and why any message should or shouldn’t be shared. He felt that the awareness of this issue should also spread at the same speed and frequency as fake news does.

Tuhin is also a social worker and his passion and interest in working for the people got further ignited in the context of identifying misinformation. He realises how important it is to tackle the spread of false information in current times. Whenever Tuhin visits any village or school, he tries to explain about fake news, and misinformation to the people he meets. His contribution to addressing this issue is not only limited to forming WhatsApp groups but he also addresses these problems on social media as well, or face to face if he comes across anyone who would be benefitted.

He feels that today’s young children should get more awareness about this topic so that they can learn and spread awareness to others too.

Director Advocacy, Centre for Media Studies (CMS)