In a rush to achieve virality, likes and views, many accounts don’t check the source of information that they provide. Furthermore, there are also accounts that purposely provide wrong facts and info about trending topics to quickly gain traction. Misleading a consumer is a serious offence.
On Tuesday, The government busted eight YouTube channels for spreading fake news such as the early declaration of Lok Sabha polls and banning of electronic machines. These eight YouTube channels had a cumulative count of almost 23 million subscribers.
These channels include Yahan Sach Dekho, Capital TV, KPS News, Sarkari Vlog, Earn Tech India, SPN9 News, Educational Dost and World Best News. These channels were thoroughly fact checked by the Press Information Bureau.
According to officials, World Best News, a YouTube channel with 1.7 million subscribers was found to have misrepresented the Indian Army. Educational Dost with over 3.4 million subscribers was found to have spread wrong information about government schemes. SPN9 News with 4.8 million subscribers was propagating fake news against the president and prime minister among other ministers. Similarly, Capital TV (3.5 million) was spreading fake news against the prime minister and about orders related to the promulgation of the president’s rule in West Bengal.
Sarkari Vlog is a channel with more than 4.5 million subscribers. They too were found to be spreading fake news about government scheme. KPS News has a little over 1 million subscribers. The channel was spreading wrong information about government schemes and decisions such as cooking gas cylinders and petrol being available and incredibly subsidised rates.
Yaha Each Dekho (3 million) and Earn India Tech (31000) were found to be sharing fake news about the Election Commission and Chief Justice of India and about Aadhar Card, PAN Card and others respectively.
Fake news is a real issue. With so many people having the power of the Internet in the palm of their hands, there is bound to be all kinds of information available to consume. What is concerning however, is that this information isn’t always credible. There are a million accounts on social media and millions of people who turn to these accounts to consume content everyday. Now, social media is all about virality. When it comes to accounts that provide news updates and cover other trending topics, there is a fine line between information and misinformation. With influencers and content creators constantly being under the radar for promoting inauthentic products and services, it is important for accounts whose content is to provide information to consumers to check and confirm the info from credible sources.