According to a recent BBC research; a rising tide of nationalism has been found as a major factor behind spreading of fake news in India.
According to BBC News, “The findings come from extensive research in India... into the way ordinary citizens engage with and spread fake news.”
To conduct the research BBC asked participants to give “extensive access to their phones over a seven-day period, allowing the researchers to examine the kinds of material they shared, whom they shared it with and how often.”
The research was undertaken by the BBC World Service and forms part of "Beyond Fake News" - a series across TV, radio and digital that aims to investigate how disinformation and fake news are affecting people around the world.
The research found that facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity. Analysis suggested that right-wing networks are much more organised than on the left, pushing nationalistic fake stories further.
“There was also an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”, reported BBC News.
The findings highlights “distrust of mainstream news outlets pushed people to spread information from alternative sources, without attempting to verify it, in the belief that they were helping to spread the real story. People were also overly confident in their ability to spot fake news.”
But the sheer flood of digital information being spread in 2018 is worsening the problem, and widespread sharing of false rumours on WhatsApp has led to a wave of violence in India. At least 32 people have been killed in the past year in incidents involving rumours spread on social media or messaging apps.
People assume that WhatsApp messages from family and friends could be trusted and sent on without checking.
