The month of March saw a significant number of false claims around assaults on Bihari migrants in Tamil Nadu - making it the most prominent topic, accounting for 15 per cent of all the claims fact-checked by BOOM last month.
Islamophobia, which has continued to feature prominently in our fact-checks, accounted for 11 per cent of all the false claims last month, dropping from 16 per cent in February.
In March, BOOM published 100 fact-checks across three languages - English, Hindi, and Bangla. Each of these fact-checks reflected a unique false/misleading claim.
Our analysis reveals that majority of claims were ‘Political’, accounting for 35 per cent of the total data set, followed by Alarmist and International claims, comprising 17 per cent and 15 per cent of the total claims. We further noticed that the surge in 'Alarmist content' was closely linked to the appearance of claims of assault on Bihari migrant workers in Tamil Nadu.
A Tale of Two States
During February, the rise in Alarmist content was due to the sensationalism surrounding the (otherwise) devastating earthquake that hit Syria/Turkey and then Tajikistan.
In March, the prominence of alarmist content is closely linked to a polarising campaign pitting people from two states - Bihar and Tamil Nadu - against each other, accounting for 76.5 per cent of all the alarmist claims.
A total of 13 unique fact checks have been found to promote demographic anxiety along state-identity lines.
The above fact check is in response to multiple videos that went viral on WhatsApp and social media supposedly showing migrant workers from Bihar being attacked in Tamil Nadu (TN). The videos were found to be taken out of context, and unrelated to any incident of assault on "Bihari migrants in Tamil Nadu". TN's Director General of Police recorded a video denying the viral claim. Read our fact check on a compilation of such videos here.
A graphic video of a young man lying in a pool of blood with an abdominal injury went viral with the claim that it shows an instance of a Bihari migrant being attacked in Tamil Nadu. Boom however found that the video was of an unrelated incident that happened in Doddabelavangala, in Karnataka during February this year. Our fact check shows that only locals from that region were involved in this incident.
Islamophobia continues to cast a Long Shadow
The incendiary claims that BOOM received were limited to generic cases of communally polarising messages. Here are a couple of examples demonstrating this -
The image above refers to a Dainik Jagran clipping that provides an advisory for Muslims intending to celebrate Eid-Al-Fitr. BOOM promptly found that the above image is morphed - the original advert was intended to encourage people to celebrate Holi in an eco-friendly fashion. Read more about it here.
A video from an Australian TV show showing children in school uniform at a mosque being taught how to pray is being shared with a false and communal that parents in Australia are 'furious' over the 'Islamisation' of schools in the country. BOOM found that the viral video has been taken from the Australian TV series 'The Swap', where 12 students of different faiths were 'swapped' and were partaking in each other's prayer sessions.
Top targets of misinformation
Muslims as a community are the biggest target of false information in the month of March, accounting for 16 per cent of all the claims. 92.85 per cent of the claims targeting the community were negative. Tamil Nadu came second, accounting for 12 per cent of the claims. All claims targeting the state were negative, owing to the false narrative of Bihar migrants being systematically assaulted there. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came in the third spot, with 8 per cent of claims targeting him. 62.5 per cent of the claims targeting the PM are negative, while the rest (37.5 per cent) are positive.
Type and Outcome effects of False Claims
We further classified false claims based on the type of information manipulation in use and the intended outcome of sharing them.
Type of Misinformation
An old video of a Dalit youngster being beaten by a group of upper caste men in Vadodara, Gujarat is being shared with the false claim that it shows a recent mob attack on a Christian in India. BOOM spoke to Vadodara Rural Police who denied the claim stating that the incident is from December 2022 and the man being beaten in the video is a Dalit and not a Christian. Breaking the video into key-frames and doing 'reverse image search' allowed BOOM to get to the bottom of the story. Read more about our fact check here.
This disturbing video above captures a mass execution of civilians in 2013 by Syrian armed forces loyal to President Bashar-al-Assad, and is being shared online with a false claim that it shows Turkish soldiers killing contractors for shoddy construction work that exacerbated the impact of the devastating earthquakes this year. It was American magazine New Lines Magazine that is said to have first reported about the video. Read more about our fact check here.
After Misleading, we found that 'False Connections' was the most prominent type of false information peddled last month. It accounts for 13 per cent of all claims. We define 'False Connection' as content where the title and the content are not related, and is very similar to generic clickbait content. Here are a few examples to illustrate this type -
A viral video alleging that the newly appointed BJP President of Rajasthan is seen dancing exuberantly in public is a lie as the person in question is actually a teacher in the Bagpat district of UP. Reverse-imaging of key-frames in the video allowed BOOM to uncover the real identity of the dancer. Read more about the fact-check here.
In the video above, a saffron-clad individual enjoying a devotional song being played on the music player, has being identified as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. However, we found that the person in the video is Madhya Pradesh's Yogi Satya Nath. Using Keywords and key-frames from the video, we found the exact video in Yogi Satya Nath's Facebook profile. The Yogi himself clarified that the person in question is actually him and not Adityanath. Read more about it here.
Outcome effect of Misinformation
The most commonly identified impact of spreading deceiving information last month was to 'Smear' individuals, i.e., damaging the reputation of someone with false accusations, contributing to 39 per cent of the total data. In second place, we have claims aiming to generate 'Demographic tension' between communities, accounting for 31 per cent of all claims. Last, but not the least, the intent to generate 'Fake Sensationalism' accounted for 31 per cent of the claims. Rahul Gandhi and PM Narendra Modi were salient targets of 'Smear Campaigns'. Muslims and the state of Tamil Nadu are the major targets of 'Demographic Anxiety' inducing claims. Here are examples pertaining to each of the identified impacts -
The above claim is an example of fact checking of a Smear Campaign. Here PM of Italy Georgia Melony is being hailed for refusing to shake hands with PM Narendra Modi, and the image above is being peddled with the claim. Investigating with relevant keywords, BOOM was able to access several media content pertaining to this event and a video that captured the entire moment, where it was shown that the Italian PM did indeed follow up with shaking hands with her Indian counterpart. Read more about it here.
The above post depicts a claim spreading 'Demographic tension' and media houses fanning the flames. Ahead of Ramzan, several news outlets including News18, TV 9 and OpIndia have claimed that Saudi Arabia has banned the use of loudspeakers. BOOM found that the claims are misleading, and that the government of the country has merely issued guidelines to ensure the sound remains minimal. Read more about our fact check here.
The image above is an example of a sensationalist claim, usually made to drive social media traffic to posts related to news/events of great import. A photograph of pro-Khalistan leader Amritpal Singh was circulating on social media with claims that it shows the Waris Punjab De (WPD) chief disguising himself as a woman to flee from Punjab after the police launched a manhunt in search of him. The images of Amritpal above were released coinciding with Punjab Police releasing seven images of Amritpal Singh in order to aid in the manhunt. BOOM found that viral image showing Amritpal Singh with long hair has been doctored and created with an AI photo editing app. Read more about it here.
Videos the most sought-after medium of deception
Videos were the most preferred medium for false information, accounting for 50 per cent of all deceptive content. This is followed by images (40 per cent) and then, texts (10 per cent). 74.2 per cent of Demographic Anxiety-related claims were peddled in video format. Smear Campaigns, on the other hand, were peddled mostly via Images (54 per cent).