Satire Starts Twitter A Bollywood superstar was recently called out for suggesting that sound waves could kill coronavirus. A prominent industrialist tweeted a picture of a mother and son wearing leaves as masks and was ridicul. A senior government official had egg on his face for sharing a picture of a chicken that she claimed was hatched from Covid-19 infected eggs.
So, what do all three have in common? No prizes for guessing. They received these images via WhatsApp and had shared them via tweets without questioning the authenticity. On each occasion, their Twitter followers confronted these influencers with the hashtag Uninstall WhatsApp. And, each time the specific tweet was deleted.
None of this prepared India for the mother of all fakes when someone running a parody account of a national leader flagg a petition on Change.org asking Mark Zuckerberg to uninstall Whatsapp from the phones of these influencers – actor Amitabh Bachchan and industrialist Anand Mahendra.
“A megastar and a renowned industrialist are being preyed upon by fake news and bizarre content being forward to them via WhatsApp. We need to restore the dignity of both the gentlemen. Through this petition, we request Mark Zuckerberg to disable WhatsApp on their numbers,” said the petition started by Twitter user Rofl Gandhi_.
Celebrities are the worst culprits
How come celebrities and influencers end up spreading fake news? A recent study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Oxford Internet Institute suggested that 69% of social media engagement around Covid-19 misinformation was generated by politicians, celebrities and public figures despite only accounting for 20% of misleading posts. The large followings of these individuals are to blame.
Rounding out the group collectively from top to Peru WhatsApp Number List bottom, the research report says the role that top personalities play in spreading information suggests a growing need to monitor their accounts and respond quickly to limit the spread of false or misleading statements.
The report’s authors further said they relied on datasets create by an international consortium of fact-checkers called First Draft that reported a 900% growth in fact-checks between January and March this year following the spread of Covid-19.
WhatsApp the biggest contributor
Whatsapp is a major contributor to fake news. This is despite the fact that the Facebook-owned company has taken several steps to reduce advances with questionable content and even more suspicious motives. In fact, a report earlier today suggested that Whatsapp fake news has decreased by 70% because it limited forwards of already-forwarded messages to just one.
WhatsApp has even provided a detailed list of FAQs WhatsApp Number Database to prevent fake news and rumors from spreading through the messaging service. Before creating the list of questions, they had even share a video that gave three simple tips to verify the veracity of the content that comes forward.
WhatsApp then suggests these FAQs
Understand when a message is forward: Messages with the label “Forward” help to determine whether a friend or relative wrote it or whether it came from someone else. And when it has been forward more than five times, it is indicat by a double arrow. In case you do not know who wrote the original message, check the facts.
Check photos and media carefully:
Photos, audio recordings, and videos may Bulk Database be alter to mislead. Check reliable news sources to see if the story is reported elsewhere. When it is report in multiple places, it is more likely to be true.
Watch for messages that look different: Many messages or links to websites containing hoaxes or fake news contain spelling mistakes. Look for these signs to verify if the information is accurate.
Check your biases: Be careful of information that confirms your pre-existing beliefs and review the facts before sharing information. Stories that seem hard to believe are often false.
Fake news often goes viral:
Even if a message is share multiple times, it doesn’t make it true. Don’t forward a message because the sender asks you to. If you see something false. Tell the person who sent it to you and ask them to verify the information before sharing it. Report those who regularly share fake news.
