The Surge of Fake News in India


India has been under the continuous radar of publishing and making up fake news and throughout the pandemic, the rate and percentage have increased. Every morning the newspaper that you read has published some fake news that you unknowingly consume.

You might be wondering why would someone create fake news or write articles that are not true! The sole reason behind publishing fake news is to manipulate the general public and make them follow and believe certain propaganda.

It makes you biased towards certain groups, minorities, or sections of people, whom you don't know. Misinformation plays an important part in the motive of publishing fake news. You can consider the issue of "Fake News" as "New-Age problems". 


Lack of Policies


The general public has always been an easy target for fake news, however, technology, internet or social media, has made the matter worse. Starting from "the presence of chip in Rs 2000 note" to "UNESCO declares Jana Gana Mana as the best national anthem", all this news is nothing but a fake.

There is a serious lack of laws and policies that can curb the publication of such news. No one is held accountable or is penalized after they're found guilty for circulating fake news. As internet users lack to differentiate between real and fake news, it makes the matter worse.

A study done by scholars from the University of Michigan, released on April,18,2020 on misinformation in India, has shown a rise in the number of fake and hoax stories, particularly after the announcement of the Janata curfew to curb the spread of COVID, on March,22,2020.

Another study conducted, found the news circulating on social media can be categorized into the following and the results are shocking.

About 62% of fake stories are related to religion, ethnic, social, and cultural groups, 54% is related to the government announcement, politics, advisories, 37% is related to COVID-related vaccines.

36% is related to deaths and illness during the pandemic, 23% with the statistics of medical cases, 16% is related to the environment, and 15% with the economy.

Fake news on Social Media has increased by 35% during the pandemic against the normal days. People have started introducing fake apps, fake websites just to con them or to extract certain benefits. Normal people under lockdown also started blindly circulating fake messages and texts on WhatsApp. 

Due to Social Media, it becomes hard to avoid fake news like YouTube, Facebook gets instant and huge viewership from them. 

Ranging from the death of celebs to the surfacing of aliens on earth, such contents makes the viewers interested enough to click on them to read till the end and this is a way how misinformation spreads, unknowingly.

WhatsApp and Facebook are trying to curb the impact and menace of fake news in India. In India, more than 200 million people use WhatsApp and it is the place where users forward more content than any other place in the world. Similarly, Facebook also has a complex problem.


Favorable Time


The reasons behind the rise are stated by experts to create falsehood among people and through fake news one can monetize and make a huge sum of money by click-baiting people.

The pandemic makes the favorable time for the rise of misinformation as people are in fear of the unknown and spreading misinformation will now divert people's minds from real issues like the economy, failure of the government. 

Mainstream media doesn't do anything to stop them and they also participate in circulating misinformation.

There are ways you can avoid becoming a target for fake news. Don't believe in anything unless it is officially declared by the authority and the government. Always check for the authenticity of the news and don't forward or share anything without being sure of its authenticity.

We need to be careful about our activities on social media ranging from liking a post to sharing them. Unless there is a strict policy against the spreading of fake news, we as responsible citizens need to be careful and do our part.


Written by - Srijita Roy

Edited by - Rudransh Khurana