In November, BOOM published 91 fact-checks in English, Hindi and Bangla. The majority of false information we found was about Islamophobic narratives (21%), mis/disinformation around the Maharashtra Assembly elections (18.7%) and the United States presidential elections (6.6%).
The Muslim community in India was the main target, comprising 11% of all false claims, followed by Bangladeshi Muslims (3.3%) and Rahul Gandhi (3.3%).
68.1% of the total fact-checks involved claims that were shared by verified accounts on X.
Mis/disinformation in 32% of the total fact-checks were peddled using old and unrelated videos.
Additionally, BOOM published 12 AI-generated fact-checks that targeted politicians and businessmen.
Theme Assessment
Mis/disinformation around the Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024
As the elections got closer, 18.7% of all fact-checks were about Maharashtra’s assembly elections held last month, compared to just 7.3% in October.
Hours before Maharashtra went to polls on November 20, 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) posted at least three fake AI generated audio clips on their official X handle. These clips, shared late on November 19, claimed to be recorded conversations involving opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders Supriya Sule (NCP), Nana Patole (Congress), IPS officer Amitabh Gupta, and an employee of an audit firm, Gaurav Mehta.
The BJP alleged these recordings were “proof” of opposition leaders Sule and Patole misappropriating bitcoins from a 2018 cryptocurrency fraud case to fund the ongoing state elections.
In the fake recordings, voices claiming to be those of Sule and Patole can be heard asking for cash in exchange for bitcoins stored in the four crypto wallets and also promising no investigation into the matter.
BOOM found that the voice notes shared by the BJP were fake and were created using generative AI technology. We analyzed the audio clips using TrueMedia.org's deepfake detection tool, which is available to journalists and researchers. Three out of four clips showed evidence of being AI-generated. The fourth clip, only five seconds long, showed minimal evidence of manipulation, likely due to its short duration.
Further, BOOM also compared the voices in the clips with publicly available interviews of Sule, Patole, and Gupta on YouTube. None of the voices matched the original voices of the three.
Another false information claimed that Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut promised higher financial aid to Muslim women if his party gained power in Maharashtra. However, this graphic was fake and altered.
BOOM found that the graphic, which features the logo of Marathi news outlet Pudhari News, was fake. Pudhari News confirmed to BOOM that they do not use the font used in the graphic.
Similarly, another claim showing an election campaign ad by BJP’s Maharashtra unit asking voters to elect the Mahayuti alliance in the upcoming assembly elections for the progress of Gujarat, was altered.
The viral photo showed a political poster with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cut outs. The text in Marathi on the poster translated to, "BJP- Mahayuti is there, then there will be progress of Gujarat".
BOOM found that the viral image was digitally altered and had no mention of Gujarat.
Islamophobic claims
A viral post on X distorted data on fertility rates based on religion from different time periods to falsely claim that the current fertility rate among Muslims is at 4.4, while that of Hindus is at 1.94.
BOOM found that the post misleads users by taking the Muslim fertility rate from 1992-1993 National Family Health Survey report, and conflating it with figures from the 2019-2021 data for Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Buddhists. The current fertility rates are 1.94 for Hindus and 2.36 for Muslims. For other religious groups, the rates are 1.61 for Sikhs, 1.88 for Christians, 1.6 for Jains, and 1.39 for Buddhists.
BOOM has frequently debunked claims accusing the Muslim community of acts like stone pelting, etc. Recently, another such claim surfaced, alleging that two Muslims were arrested for pelting stones at a Vande Bharat train in Gaya, Bihar. However, we found that this claim was false. The individuals accused of throwing stones were not Muslims; they were Hindus named Vikas Kumar and Manish Kumar.
2024 United States Presidential elections
A video of the crowd at Donald Trump's victory speech chanting "Bobby Bobby," referring to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is being falsely shared by Indian right-wing social media users claiming the crowd was chanting "Modi Modi." BOOM fact-checked the video and confirmed that the crowd was actually chanting "Bobby Bobby" after Trump mentioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and discussed his potential role in a future administration.
Indian right-wing social media users shared a video of the crowd allegedly chanting "Bobby Bobby," at Donald Trump's victory speech. BOOM fact-checked the video and confirmed that the crowd was chanting "Bobby Bobby," referring to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after Trump mentioned him and talked about his possible role in a future administration.
In a case of media misreporting, India Today anchor Gaurav Sawant read out a tweet from a parody X account impersonating PM Modi. The fake tweet falsely claimed Modi congratulated Donald Trump and mentioned plans to discuss violence against Hindus in Bangladesh and "Khalistani terrorism enabled by Justin Trudeau in Canada." Later, Sawant admitted the error on air and read Modi's actual congratulatory message to Trump while covering the results of the 2024 US presidential election.
A viral fake letter falsely claims that Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser to Bangladesh's interim government, referred to Donald Trump as "the Messiah we have been waiting for" after his U.S. presidential victory. BOOM found that while Yunus did express his wishes for Trump's success and second term, the original statement did not include the term "messiah" or any similar praise.
Medium, Intent & Type of Deception
60.4% of the 91 fact-checks were shared via videos, followed by images (23.1%) and texts (15.4%). Regarding the intent behind spreading mis/disinformation, 89% of the total fact-checks were under the “Sensationalist” category. This was followed by “Smear Campaigns” against Indian political leaders (8.8%) and the intent of spreading “Demographic Anxiety” (2.2%).
62.6% of the total fact-checks consisted of false content, followed by fabricated and misleading content at 13.2% each.