Fake News In India Linked To ‘Nationalism’ & Narendra Modi: BBC Report
According to the report, there is an “overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Besides lowering the quality of everyday political discourse, the surge in circulation of fake news in India has resulted in a spate of violence across the country which killed 30 people in the past one year. A qualitative research study commissioned by the BBC has found an interesting link between fake news, nationalism and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Categorising fake news by topic, the research found that 29.9% of fake news messages shared on Whatsapp fall under the category of ‘nationalism’. These include ‘common man’ stories, stories on ‘cultural preservation’ and others. Off all fake news messages on Whatsapp, ‘scares and scams’ form the biggest chunk of all fake news on WhatsApp – 36.5%. These pertain to conspiracies, health, money, technology and others. Fake news pertaining to current affairs, i.e., domestic news/politics forms 22.4% of these messages.
As per the analysis of social media posts and accounts, right-wing networks are more organised and push fake news stories about nationalism.
This is particularly glaring, since in other countries — Kenya and Nigeria — nationalism was not a factor behind people sharing fake news. Current affairs as well as scares and scams were more prominent types of fake news in these countries.
However, the most interesting finding of the study is the “overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
“In India people are reluctant to share messages which they think might incite violence, but feel duty bound to share nationalistic messages,” the report said. “In sharing these messages, people feel like they are nation building.”
Jamie Angus, director of the BBC World Service Group, told HT: “Whilst most discussion in the media has focused on ‘fake news’ in the West, this piece of research gives strong evidence that a serious set of problems are emerging in the rest of the world where the idea of nation-building is trumping the truth when it comes to sharing stories on social media.”
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