Fake account of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi with 1 Lakh followers spreads false news and slander against minorities

A fake account of former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi has been consistently spreading fake news and hate on twitter. The username of this account is @THEGOGAI. This account was created in October 2019 and has a whopping 1,00,000 followers. The account’s content has got nothing to do with the figure it is impersonating as it is mostly a commentary account. The tweets made by this account range from fake news to hate speech against minorities.

Fake news:

On August 3, 2021, the account posted a tweet that accused INC Rajasthan of increasing the fixed cost of electricity in Rajasthan to 800 rs despite their manifesto mentioning that their manifesto clearly stated that they will not be doing so. The tweet has over 1.2k likes and 317 retweets.

Intent:

The intent of this tweet was to spread slander and false information against the ruling government of Rajasthan to help rally more people against them. The aim of accounts like this is to simply sow hate in the minds of the individuals reading them.

Fact-Check:

Upon checking the official website of the electricity board of the Government of Rajasthan and viewing their latest rate chart we found that none of the rates match the figure quoted by @THEGOGAI. This information is therefore, false. A screenshot of the rate chart is attached below

Hate Speech:

Ever since this account was made, it has been displaying a consistent pattern of hate speech against minorities often using derogatory terms and abusive language against the community. Attached below are a small glimpse into the kind of hate speech undertaken by the account:

These are just some glaring examples of abusive language used by the account that could pose a threat to the minority communities. The fact that this account had thousands of followers is alarming because once a person starts to read such hateful language on a regular basis, they may start to actually agree with it and which can be dangerous in a country where communalism is perhaps one of the most contentious issues.

The user of this account chooses to pose as the former CJI to write such tweets, this is extremely alarming.

DFRAC Editor

Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre (DFRAC) is a non-partisan and independent media organisation which focuses on fact-checking and identifying hate speech. With the popularisation of the internet came the challenge of information overload and often times, our feeds are overpopulated with conflicting, incendiary and false information which is increasingly becoming difficult to ignore and not believe in

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