Join the initiative to red-flag fake news, vaccinate people with truth

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

05.01.2022

Exclusive liquor bars opened for women by the Tamil Nadu government”. This was among thousands of forwarded messages ranging from “Hot coconut water kills all types of cancer cells, cysts and tumors” to “Karnataka police have added location trackers for all auto rickshaws for women safety” that TOI busted as fake recently through its campaign ‘Times Verified’.

Born in Mumbai in April last year, the initiative that aims to break the chain of viral misinformation and disinformation which has been infecting social media groups in the backdrop of a mutating virus, went national in December 2021.

Under this campaign, readers send unverified or suspicious messages doing the rounds of social media to this paper on the WhatsApp number 9819888887 and our expert panel—comprising reporters, editors and representatives from the BMC and government—tap into their sources to verify its credibility.

Over the last few weeks, TOI received over 15,000 messages of which 45% emerged as falsehoods. “This message is fake,” cried the bold red stamp sent by our panel in response to the dubious messages including the recent: “Indian student home remedy for Covid 19 approved by WHO. Concoction of pepper, honey & ginger juice can eli- minate the effects of Covid in 5days. ”

In an email interview, US based physician Dr Seema Yasmin—whose recent book speaks about how misinformation spreads faster than microbes in times of crisis—had told TOI that the rapid spread of false information during a pandemic can cost people their lives. In this scenario, the job of our “chain-breakers”—readers who have been regularly forwarding dubious messages to help TOI identify red flags and vaccinate you with the truth—becomes especially significant.

Among these vigilant chain breakers are Delhi’s Meenakshi Kaul who recently helped us bust this message “Japan has dropped its COVID-19 vaccination rollout and has opted to use the drug Ivermectin and by doing so, Japan has ended COVID-19 ‘almost overnight’” and Maharashtra’s Pavan Agarwal who brought to our notice a dubious 1957 comic strip featuring Phantom warning people of “China virus”.

If Karnataka’s Loganat- han P alerted us to the fake “Calls from ‘912250041117’ for vaccine feedback, on answering the call, the phone will be hacked”, UP’s Ravinder Raina promptly helped us call out this falsehood: “Indian Army Soldiers fainted after running due to Covid vaccination”.

The rumours weren’t only about the virus. For instance, Punjab’s Nausheen B sent us this dubious forward: “Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician from Kolkata, declared as the first Indian to win Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians. ”

To join the chain-breaking brigade in the fight against false news, all you have to do is send dubious, anxiety-causing news circulated on social media to our expert panel and let the green tick in the Times Verified logo counter the tyranny of the grey curved arrow of forwards.