In India, Fake News Floods Social Media as Voting Begins

 

Indian voters begin marking ballots¹ this week in a general election that will continue over the next six weeks.

The election will decide seats in India’s lower house of parliament. The winning party or coalition² will choose India’s prime minister.

Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is seeking a second term in office. The main opposition³ Congress Party, led by Rahul Gandhi, is seeking to take control of the government.

The election will be held in several rounds of voting through May 19, with vote counting expected to begin May 23. The country has about 900 million eligible⁴ voters.

Experts say a high percentage of India’s citizens are getting election-related information from social media. They say this has raised concerns about fake news stories and images influencing the election.

Media watchdog groups say in the run-up to the election, they have seen fake, made up pictures being published by major news media. They have also seen hateful propaganda based on made up comments.

A lot of people seem to be believing the information they are seeing.

Ram⁵ Shankar Rai owns a store in the city of New Delhi. Rai told The Associated Press he spends at least two hours a day examining political news and videos shared by others on social media.

On the WhatsApp messenger service, Rai received a series of videos and images that were said to show results of an Indian airstrike in Pakistan. The information included pictures identified as the bodies of dead militants⁶.

But Rai later found out the images were falsely identified. They were not militants. Instead, the pictures showed victims of a 2005 earthquake that killed thousands of people in Pakistan. Rai told the AP he could not tell the pictures were not real. “It’s news,” he said. “How can it be fake?”

Another example of fake news appeared on Facebook in February after a suicide bombing in Kashmir, an area claimed by both India and Pakistan. The bombing killed 40 Indian soldiers and increased tensions between the two sides.

Two weeks after the attack, a Facebook user shared a recording⁷ of what he said was a telephone call in which the head of the BJP, Amit Shah, was speaking. Shah was supposedly heard saying, “We agree that for election, we need a war.” But the recording was not real. It was made by putting together different pieces of audio from older stories.

The Facebook post was seen by 2.5 million viewers and shared more than 150,000 times before it was removed by the company.

In India, Facebook has partnered with fact checking companies and increased efforts to block fake accounts. On Monday, Facebook said it had removed 1,126 accounts, groups and pages in India and Pakistan for “inauthentic behavior.”

One of the fact checking companies partnering is Boom. Jency Jacob directs the operation. He told the AP his biggest worry is “the blatant⁸ misuse⁹ of old videos and images to suggest that one political party or leader is not good for the country.” He added that most people do not take the time “to go back and check whether what they are seeing is true or not.”

Apar Gupta is head of an Indian-based group called the Internet Freedom Foundation. He said many Indian internet users seem to lack the knowledge and skills to judge that “just because it’s on a screen does not mean it’s true.”

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

rounds – n. a series of repeated actions or events

eligible – adj. having the right to do or receive something

fake – adj. false, not true

watchdog – adj. involving or related to something that guards against loss, waste or undesirable¹⁰ actions

viewer – n. someone who watches or inspects something

check – v. to inspect or examine

inauthentic – adj. not real or true

blatant – adj. very obvious, with no attempt to be honest or behave well

screen – n. the area where information and operations are shown on an electronic device

1 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

5 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

6 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 blatant   

adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的

参考例句：

• I cannot believe that so blatant a comedy can hoodwink anybody.我无法相信这么显眼的一出喜剧能够欺骗谁。
• His treatment of his secretary was a blatant example of managerial arrogance.他管理的傲慢作风在他对待秘书的态度上表露无遗。

9 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。

10 undesirable   

adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子

参考例句：

• They are the undesirable elements among the employees.他们是雇员中的不良分子。
• Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化。