Nationalism drive behind fake news in India: BBC research

London: People in India share fake news stories with nationalistic messages for “nation building” purposes without any attempt at fact-checking a report, according to a BBC research released on Monday.
The findings come from extensive research in India, Kenya, and Nigeria into the way ordinary citizens engage with and spread fake news, the British public broadcaster said.
According to the report, there is also an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The report, analysing the spread of fake news from the perspective of ordinary citizens, suggests an “overlap between fake news and pro-Modi political activity” in India.
The BBC said its first published study, providing an in-depth understanding of how fake news and disinformation are spreading within encrypted chat apps, reveals that emotion is trumping reason when it comes to sharing news.
“Whilst most discussion in the media has focused on ‘fake news’ in the West, this piece of research gives strong evidence that a serious set of problems are emerging in the rest of the world where the idea of nation-building is trumping the truth when it comes to sharing stories on social media,” said Jamie Angus, Director, BBC World Service Group.
As part of the extensive research using big data and analytics, the BBC found that in Indian Twitter networks, known right wing sources of fake news seemed more closely aligned than left wing sources.
“This allows right leaning fake news to spread faster and wider than left leaning fake news,” notes the extensive research carried out by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the three countries.
The research forms part of the BBC Beyond Fake News project, a new international anti-disinformation initiative of programmes and discussions, which launches this week.
The research revealed that fake news was being unwittingly spread by people across India, Kenya, and Nigeria as they forward messages in the hope that someone else will check the truth of the story for them.
“In India people are reluctant to share messages which they think might incite violence, but feel duty bound to share nationalistic messages,” the research notes.
“Fake news stories about India’s progress, Hindu power and revival of lost Hindu glory are being shared widely without any attempt at fact-checking. In sharing these messages, people feel like they are nation building,” it adds.
Santanu Chakrabarti, Head of Audience Research, BBC World Service said in some of its wider findings, the report found that a sense of duty is behind the spread of fake news in Kenya and Nigeria rather than being motivated by a duty to “nation build” like in India.
In Kenya and Nigeria people are consuming mainstream media sources and known sources of fake news in equal amounts, even though the public’s desire to know the original source of messages is far greater than in India, it said.
The report examines networks within Twitter and analyses how people are sharing encrypted messaging apps, after users gave the BBC unprecedented access to their phones. (PTI)