By Kamal Pratap Singh
Fake news is travelling much faster than the coronavirus. The world is struggling with the deluge of misinformation about the evolving pandemic. The fake news surrounding the origin of the virus, its subsequent spread and threats it poses have nearly engulfed every nation, although with varied intensity.
India is not an exception to the virus of fake news. Even before the country reported its first case on 30 January, social media was rife with fake posts, wild rumours, conspiracy theories, doctored videos about the disease’s origin, its subsequent spread and possible remedies. Once the country started reporting more cases, a torrent of fake messages began populating all major social media platforms, particularly Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, TikTok and so on. According to a recent report by the fact checking website BOOM, COVID-19 related fake news which began climbing in the third week of March took a massive spike in early April and then.
These misleading news and statement by leaders and general public have made huge stress and panic and some of them even resulted in serious injury, for example several people were hospitalized after they consumed household disinfectant when U.S. President Donald Trump suggested scientists should investigate inserting the cleaning agent into the body as a way to cure COVID-19.
Here we are discussing some noted examples of news/comments that are/were subjected to controversial matters, they are subdivided in categories. In the end, we will see through a poster how the news can be interpreted as right or wrong based on individual’s assessment.
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