Bulk of COVID-19-related fact-checks in Apr related to communal rumours, claims BOOM Live

A bulk of the COVID-19-related fact-checks in April wererelated to communal rumours, most of which were false allegations againstMuslims of purposefully spreading the virus, claimed a report by BOOM Live.

BOOM Live, a fact-checking platform that works with socialmedia companies like Facebook, said its study analysed 178 fact-checks onCOVID-19 related to misinformation/disinformation around the pandemic fromJanuary to May this year.

   

“During April, a new trend was observed communallycharged disinformation targeting Muslims became more frequent,” the reportsaid.

By the end of April, a bulk of BOOM Live’s fact-checks (34unique fact checks) were on communal rumours, it claimed.

The report further noted that after several members of theTablighi Jamaat an Islamic missionary group tested positive, “Islamophobicrumours around them purposefully spreading the virus became viral on theinternet”.

Other trends also witnessed in April were: spike in fakenews related to politics, more lockdown related misinformation, moremisinformation around Italy and rumours related to the economy.

The January-February period saw mostly rumours about China,with some false prediction theories and cures/prevention/treatments toCOVID-19.

March witnessed fake news on Italy and lockdowns, as well asconspiracy theories regarding the virus being a bioweapon going viral.

BOOM Live said it did its first COVID-19 fact-check onJanuary 25, while February saw major events and developments like the Delhielections, Donald Trump’s India visit and the Delhi riots.

“There was a drastic change of topic in March, as moreCOVID-19 related misinformation went viral online,” it said.

BOOM Live said while most of the false or misleading claimswere circulated with videos (35 per cent), there was also a significant numberof text messages (29.4 per cent) being shared with fake cures, treatments orquotes from celebrities, along with images (29.4 per cent) that were eithermisrepresented or doctored.

“We also noticed a small number of audio clips (2.2 percent) going viral with false contexts. A few of our fact-checks were on newsreports (4 per cent) by mainstream media organisations. Most of these storieswere found to make false claims against a particular community,” it added.

BOOM Live said it had seen a spike in text-basedmisinformation in March as false notifications and lockdown guidelines becameviral.

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