Dr WebQoof August Round-up: Fake News Around Kashmir & More
A round-up of fake news we’ve busted in August.
Video Producer: Kritika Goel
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
In the heat of news events, the virus of fake news breeds! Like Leonardo de Caprio and Alia Bhatt falling for decades-old photos that were being passed off as pictures of the Amazon forest fire. August has seen a huge rash of fake news. Here's a round-up.
Kashmir WebQoof
With the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, protests erupted. But not all protest videos show Kashmiris protesting.
Like a video of National Health Mission employees protesting. Or one video clip of violence in the Valley shared by ex-ISI chief's son. Or this video of Burhan Wani's funeral procession in 2016, passed off as this year's protests by a Pakistani minister.
It's not just ministers or laymen, but journalists, like Ameer Abbas from Pakistan, who shared old images of a Palestinian victim in the Gaza war, and pegged it to the unrest in the Kashmir Valley.
Child-Lifting Rumours
There have also been a number of rumours regarding child-lifting this month.
All of these have gone viral, with videos of innocent people being beat up by a mob online. Take the case of Sakhi Baba from Gwalior, who was on his way to the city, dressed as a woman.
Videos showing a woman, and a man, both accused of child-lifting and being gheraoed by the villagers, continue to do the rounds. Team WebQoof checked with the local police. In both cases, the individuals were mentally ill and had nothing to do with child-lifting.
I-Day! Freedom from Fake News?
That's not likely anytime soon!
On Independence Day, while the rest of the country was on leave, the fake news factory marched ahead, full-steam.
A mock drill, held usually a couple of times a year was passed off as a security threat.
Just like this viral message from retired Brigadier Hemant Mahajan, who was passed off as the Police Commissioner of Mumbai. The actual police commissioner is Sanjay Barve, and the Inspector General of Police, Cyber, Brijesh Singh, took to Twitter to clarify that no such advisory has been issued by Mumbai Police.
That's more than a whole month's quota of fake news.
And yet, it all happened in less than a month. For more such news on fake news, and for further details, check out the WebQoof section on www.thequint.com. And do share and subscribe to The Quint. Until next time, may common sense prevail!
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on Whatsapp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
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