As the government and political leaders try to be media watchdogs, we take a look at how they fared in keeping fake news at bay.
In probably the fastest roll-back in the history of roll-backs, the I&B Ministry on Tuesday withdrew its order on journalists' accreditation that allowed regulatory bodies to assume a journalist accused of writing fake news to be guilty until proven innocent -- which goes against cardinal principles of justice.
As the government and political leaders try to be media watchdogs, we take a look at how they fared in keeping fake news at bay.
BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya appears to be a serial offender
1) Late last year, Outlook had busted a false tweet by Malviya that appeared to malign first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Patidar leader Hardik Patel. In his haste to portray Hardik and Nehru as womanizers, Malviya goofed ( we assume so) by tweeting a picture collage showing Nehru with women, which included one in tight embrace with …his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit, with the caption 'It seems Hardik has more of Nehru’s DNA’. This was at the time a sex-less ‘sex’ video of Patel had gone viral.
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2) Amit Malviya, Piyush Goyal, and Giriraj Singh, to laud the BJP's contentious move to demonetise 86 per cent of currency in one go on November 2016, misquoted (deliberately?) Nobel prize-winning American economist Richard Thaler.
Thaler had supported demonetisation as a step towards cashless economy, but when a Twitter user alerted him about the introduction of Rs2000 note, he responded 'Really? Damn'. BJP leaders conveniently missed the second part, and went on to pat their backs, treating Thaler's earlier statement as validation.
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3) In July last year, the BJP's IT In-Charge for Asansol district, Tarun Sengupta, was arrested on charges of 'spreading fake news and creating communal disharmony'. In the wake of ongoing unrest in West Bengal, following communal clashes triggered by an 'objectionable' Facebook post, a string of fake news were allegedly used to ignite the dire situation.
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An uncalled for movie-mania
4)To depict the 'atrocities' against Hindus by Muslims in West Bengal, Haryana BJP leader Vijeta Malik shared a Facebook post showing picture of a woman being molested on a busy road. The picture soon became viral during communal tensions in the state. As was later found out, the picture was a still from a Bhojpuri movie.
5) Of late, the BJP has been at the receiving end of similar fabricated news and pictures that spread like wildfire on social media. An image that purported to show the DGP of Gujarat bowing down and touching the feet of Home Minister Rajnath Singh who sits leisurely on a couch was shared by multiple Congress leaders, including party spokesperson Sanjay Jha. Fact check- Singh's face was morphed on a fictional character from the film, 'Kya Yahi Sach Hai'.
6) In May last year, a case against BJP’s Kerala president Kummanam Rajasekharan was registered for circulating a fake video saying CPI(M) men celebrating the murder of an RSS worker in Kannur. “Brutality, bestiality at its worst. Kannur communists celebrate murder of RSS karyakartha Biju, whom they beheaded,’’ said Rajasekharan in the description of the video on his Twitter account.
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How Fake news and a bot-account incited Paresh Rawal and Nationalist Brigade
7) Actor-politician Paresh Rawal, had in May last year, tweeted saying: “Instead of tying stone-pelter on the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy”. The post was a reference to a video from Kashmir in April where the Indian army had used a civilian as a human shield. Rawal apparently launched his tirade based on the Facebook post of Post Card News story saying Roy had apparently told a Pakistani daily that even 70 lakh Indian troops of the Indian army could not defeat the ones demanding azadi in Kashmir. The interview of Roy by Times of Islamabad turned out to be fake.
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A Wishful Support For Beef Ban
9) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had to delete a retweet which said music composer AR Rehman supported the BJP's beef ban, after it was found out he never made that statement.
Rehman never said: "I don’t eat beef. My mother was a practising Hindu. She had always been spiritually inclined. Growing up, I used to watch my mother as she worshipped cows during the religious festivals. I chose the path of Sufism, but I still consider cow to be a sacred symbol of life. Killing cow hurts the sentiment of billions of Hindus, so we need to stop that. I welcome the initatives taken by the central government to curb cattle slaughter." After the realisation, Sitharaman deleted the retweet and tweeted, ' I am undoing my RT as this seems unverified information. Sorry about any confusion.'
10) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, to criticize the central government for demonetization, retweeted an unverified image of a man who had allegedly killed himself in a bank because he could not withdraw money. In fact, the man had come to rob the bank and when he realized police had surrounded the bank and he couldn't escape, he decided to end his life.
11) Kejriwal, at around the same time made another blunder when he retweeted an image showing wounded children from Syria with the caption that these were the children injured in a train accident in Kanpur.
12) Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo was trolled when he shared a picture of a bus stand claiming it was from Gujarat. "This is not an Airport•It's not in London or New York either•It's the New Bus Stand inaugrated in Rajkot, Gujarat," he had tweeted. The picture was actually a virtual representation of how the bus stop would look when constructed. Supriyo fell for a 3D CAD projection.
13)Back in 2014 when the BJP won a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha polls, party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi tweeted a rumour floating around that claimed the UNESCO 'adjudged our national anthem to be the best in the world.'
When told of the fake news, Lekhi played the you-are-an-anti-national-for-not-appreciating-national-anthem- card. In a Facebook post, she had written, 'UNESCO or not D Indian national anthem is the best, trusting D obvious isn't criminal. Ashamed at D ignominy of Indians who do not believe so (sic)."
14) Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, last year tweeted a fake image that showed Big Ben, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Twin Towers, and Statue of Liberty lit up in tricolour to mark India's republic day. She had captioned the picture 'Jai Hind'.