Last weekend, an audio message, purportedly from a lady whose father was an army doctor, went viral on WhatsApp.
The message claimed that “army hospitals are in direct contact with the ministry of health, and they’ve been ordered to create quarantine facilities everywhere.” But that wasn’t the dangerous part of the message. The lady further claimed, attributing to the ministry of health, that “the entire country is going on lockdown (sic) for the next five days, which means no travelling, no airfare, nothing.” Curiously, the message was post-faced with this: “The information is completely legit because my dad is in contact with the ministry of health.”
Needless to say, none of this was true. And in a matter of hours, fact-checked not just by some of India’s leading fact-checkers, but also the Press Information Bureau’s Twitter handle. In an image, it said, “An audio clip going round (sic) saying the country is going into lockdown (sic). This is absolutely FAKE…”
But chances are that the damage was already done, given how WhatsApp users in India behave: share before verifying, or if it’s on WhatsApp, it must be true.
“This type of messaging usually triggers panic, hoarding and other forms of irrational behaviour,” says Karen Rebelo, deputy editor of Boom Live.
Read: Local language content startups help stem fake info
From a fake office memorandum that said on the 13th of March that “holiday was mandatory in schools, educational institutions, offices having more than 10 employees” in Maharastra, Gujarat, UP and Sikkim to audio clips that recommended self-checks, or eating bananas to ward off the virus or using hairdryers, fact-checkers today are up against a deluge of misinformation around the Coronavirus pandemic, which no less than the World Health Organisation’s head, Dr Tedros Adhonom Ghebreyesus has called an “infodemic”.
In India, fact-checkers tell ET, the coronavirus infodemic is now in its second wave of sorts (the first one was China-focused in January), and trends suggest, it could be at its deadliest, with reports of Indians testing positive for the virus only increasing every day.
Unsurprisingly, their volumes have increased. Rebelo adds, “On average we are debunking six to eight stories a day. On a crazy day, that number goes to 10.” She adds, “We are going after the really viral ones.” In other newsrooms like Newschecker, which works closely with language social content app ShareChat, the first half of this month has seen it debunk more “unique claims” (sixteen) than it did in the whole of February (fifteen).
“We have requested the platforms that we work with to prioritise content around the Delhi violence and the coronavirus. And so far, we’ve done 30 posts, which we have translated in five languages, including one fact-sheet which we translated in eight languages,” says Rajneil Kamath, publisher of Newschecker.
At the content level, these come in various forms and shapes. Themes, ranging from miracle cures to home remedies, to symptoms, to scaremongering to even hyperlocal rumours. To be sure, health-related misinformation is not uncommon. It has, however, acquired a newer dimension and scale in the times of a pandemic.
For instance, in Telangana, toddy was suggested as a cure for the Coronavirus, even citing an alleged study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. That was carried in a local newspaper, with statements from the local toddy association. This is part of a pattern, which Rakesh Dubbudu of Factly refers to as “impersonation of credible people.” He says, “Typically all these posts would have cures, with some doctor in China or Japan recommending it, to give it credibility.”
But what has become a matter of concern for fact-checkers, is misinformation around victims and conspiracy theories. “What we’re seeing is a lot of rumour-mongering that is hyperlocal. For instance, someone has been detected here, there and so on. Besides, doctors are also part of the problem. Every doctor seems to have a view on this, and thereby they’re creating a lot of confusion,” says Kamath of Newschecker.
Dubbudu adds that this type of misinformation has gathered pace since India started reporting positive cases. “Currently, there’s a lot of fake news around patients and victims. And some of that also include alleged government initiatives. For instance, there was a rumour that the government was to spray pesticides in the air for coronavirus, which is obviously false.” This particular message, however, became one of a global nature, with the names of the governments being changed – Oman, Iran, Afghanistan, and India to suit the country. The claim was later debunked by the government of Oman.
Conspiracy theories around the coronavirus as a bioweapon escaping a Chinese lab have become commonplace, echoed by a United States senator Tom Cotton, and closer home by Congress member of parliament Manish Tewari. Or for that matter, the one about a purported Chinese intelligence officer “revealing the truth about the coronavirus”. Both of them have turned out to be false, and just what they were – conspiracy theories.
The law, for now, is fighting back. On Monday, three persons were arrested in Hyderabad for spreading false information under the Epidemics and Diseases Act, 1897. Similar cases have been registered against persons in Odisha, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu according to news reports. But the worst could be yet to come, as the numbers rise in India. The Commissioner of Police in Kolkata Anuj Sharma even took to twitter on Wednesday to warn those who are spreading misinformation saying strict legal action will be initiated against those caught.
But fact-checkers fear that the worst is yet to come. Rebelo of Boom Live says, “We are in unchartered territory. If India is unable to contain the [coronavirus] outbreak, you will see a surge in misinformation. In that scenario, fatigue will set in and when finding reliable information is too cumbersome, people will double down on their previously held beliefs.” She adds, “Fact-checking efforts may find it harder to change opinions in that scenario. We are not there yet.”
It’s ironic then that the best suggestion to insulate oneself from all the misinformation came as a forward where Snoopy tells Charlie Brown that he’s afraid of Corona, “Delete WhatsApp.”
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