By Nidhi Jacob
Of all the fact-checks published by BOOM in September, the G20 Summit 2023, the India-Canada diplomatic standoff and the Morocco earthquake were the most popular topics that generated false and misleading claims, accounting for 11%, 5.3% and 4.3%, respectively.
Of the 93 fact-checks that were published in September in English, Hindi and Bangla, 31.18% of the claims were Political in nature. This was followed by Communal (13%) and Alarmist (13%) claims.
Claims that were political (31.18%) in nature mostly included topics like the 2023 G20 Summit and the Indo-Canadian diplomatic row.
Theme Assessment
G20 Summit 2023
The eighteenth G20 or Group of Twenty was held in New Delhi, India, between September 9 and September 10, 2023. Following the event, BOOM analysed a string of claims between September 11 and 19.
Here are the trends that we observed:
For example, a false claim related to a Times Now interview of Deputy Leader serving on the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Asle Toje went viral on social media stating that Toje revealed how PM Modi was being considered as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize.
BOOM found that the video was from March 2022 and the Times Now Report had grossly misquoted Toje. During the interview he had said, “ I hope every leader in every nation is inspired to do the work that is necessary to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” The statement did not mention considering Modi as a contender for the award.
BOOM found that the clip had been shared out of context and that Gandhi made the statement in irony after parts of his speech in a Lok Sabha session were removed.
India-Canada Diplomatic Row
The India-Canada diplomatic stand-off escalated when the Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, on September 18, stated that his government suspected the involvement of the Indian government in the killing of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist leader Hardip Singh, on June 18, in British Columbia.
82% of claims targeting Muslims had negative sentiments attached.
91% of the claims promoted Demographic Anxiety. This was followed by Fake Sensationalism, which accounted for 9.1%.
63.6% of the claims were misleading. For example, an old video from Agra in UP had resurfaced with a false communal claim that the police had apprehended 15 muslim boys with Hindu girls while conducting a raid at a hookah bar in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. However, a police official in Agra confirmed to BOOM that the communal claims in the video were not true.
Medium of deception
68% of false claims were shared via videos followed by images (26%) and text (6.45%).
20.43% of Political claims, 11% of Communal claims and 8.6% of Scripted Content were peddled via videos.
