Amid the flurry of fake WhatsApp messages going viral, the latest is a photoshopped image of Shirdi Sai Baba’s face embossed on the moon, which got villagers across several districts in Karnataka, dashing out of their houses on Sunday, 29 July, hoping to spot the unusual phenomenon in the sky.
The message that accompanied the image, later changed to a claim that only the “blessed” would be able to spot Sai Baba’s face on the moon, while those who could not were “cursed”, a report in Bangalore Mirror states.
The WhatsApp forward was widely circulated in Chikkaballapur, Bengaluru Rural and even outskirts of Bengaluru.
The residents of these districts, reportedly even took the help of binoculars to help them spot the “rare, divine sight”, the report adds.
The news comes around the same time the Indian IT Ministry announced that it was keen to see WhatsApp prioritise curbing of fake news on its platform – against the backdrop of lynching incidents claiming many lives – over its plans to launch payments service.
PTI reports that the Ministry’s decision stems from the view that WhatsApp needs to resolve on priority basis the overhanging issue of misinformation and take more steps to control the rampant abuse of its platform for circulation of fake messages.
(With inputs from Bangalore Mirror)
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