A rising tide of nationalism in India is driving ordinary citizens to spread fake news, according to BBC research. The research found that facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity.
Social media analysis suggested that right-wing networks are much more organised pushing nationalistic fake stories further.
Distrust of mainstream news outlets pushed people to spread information from alternative sources, without attempting to verify it, in the belief that they were helping to spread the real story. People were also overly confident in their ability to spot fake news. Participants in the BBC research made little attempt to query the original source of fake news messages, looking instead to alternative signs that the information was reliable. These included the number of comments on a Facebook post, the kinds of images on the posts, or the sender, with people assuming WhatsApp messages from family and friends could be trusted and sent on without checking. Widespread sharing of false rumours on WhatsApp has led to a wave of violence in India, with people forwarding on fake messages about child abductors to friends and family out of a sense of duty to protect loved ones and communities.
32 people have been killed in the past year in incidents involving rumours spread on social media or messaging apps.
No comments:
Post a Comment