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WhatsApp Journalism

India’s misinformation crisis: Fake or real?

Deconstructing the 'fake news' phenomenon in India, and how not to get fooled by the next annoying WhatsApp forward from your uncle

18/11/16

Venkat Ananth

To the heady mix of human psychology, partisan interests, malicious intent and algorithms, you get a lethal weapon to sway public opinion – Fake News

WhatsApp’s broadcast message service and its groups feature are increasingly used by political parties for propaganda purposes

Propaganda aside, messages often range from a rumour to a data point, or even a made-up piece of information, often to confuse people

The kind of soul searching Western media is engaging in is not visible in India yet

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Earlier this week, in Bihar’s Chhapra district, as part of the recent demonetisation drive, income tax officials conducted raids on several doctors. One of them was Dr RB Sinha (65). The officials reportedly found unaccounted cash worth Rs 6 crore. The stress of losing all his hard earned cash caused him to suffer a cardiac…

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