Fact Check: Popular ‘fact-checking’ Twitter account followed by verified handles regularly posts fake news

The popularity of political discourse on twitter knows no bounds anymore. Accounts are getting extremely creative in the way that they present and post news so that it becomes impossible for a common man to tell what is real and what is not. Many popular so-called ‘news media’ accounts have resorted to merely bashing the […]

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Fact-Check: Communalized news circulated on social media about Moradabad ‘exodus’ circulated by several popular media houses

A few days ago, a picture of a poster advertising houses ‘for sale’ in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad started to make rounds on social media. This prompted many verified social media handles to raise their concerns that a Hindu ‘exodus’ was happening in this neighborhood. According the claim, the 81 houses in this locality were being […]

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Managing harmful content and combatting hate speech online

How the World is stepping up to combat hateful, harmful content online Although it is relatively common in mainstream society to condemn hate speech, including online hate speech, closer study shows that this mainstream consensus is not well enforced. Starting with the definition of hate speech and striking a balance between freedom of speech, freedom […]

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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 […]

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Fact Check: Misleading video about the Masjid being bulldozed by Yogi Government is viral on social media

A video is going viral on social media with the claim that the Yogi government has bulldozed the mosque of Maulana, who claimed the Hindu pilgrimage, not Badrinath but Badruddin Shah. Claim: बद्रीनाथ को मजार बताने वाले मौलाना की मस्जिद अवैध निकली। बाबाजी ने JCB चलवा दिया। This video was widely shared on Twitter and […]

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What makes people trust and rely on fake news over real news

 Nisar Siddiqui (Research Fellow DFRAC) Fake News is a type of hoax or deliberate spread of misinformation with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically. Fake News is related to propaganda whose purpose is to spread information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicise a particular […]

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Fact-Check: Account Followed by Verified Right-Wing Handles Displays a Pattern of Hate Speech and Misinformation

Creating divisiveness through fake news and misinformation has become the norm amongst popular right wing twitter accounts. These accounts primarily target minorities by twisting the information as well as simply creating conflicts out of thin air . On June 22, 2021, twitter user @Krishna29892392 posted a screenshot of a newspaper advertisement that expressed a supermarket’s […]

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