With the increasing instances of Fake News being circulated on WhatsApp, which has resulted in the violent deaths of 12 people in the past one month in India, the need to identify the authenticity of messages has never been more crucial than now.
In the latest case of mob violence, 5 men were killed by villagers in Maharashtra’s Dhole district due to rumors spread on WhatsApp pertaining to child kidnappers.
Even though the government has now sent out a warning to WhatsApp asking the messaging giant to stop the spread of fake and provocative news, it is our duty as users to fact check and verify information before spreading it on social media.
So how do you check for fake news in India? The task is not as complex as it sounds.
Here are 7 ways to identify if the messages you receive on WhatsApp are fake or authentic.
1.) ALWAYS BE SKEPTICAL
Don’t take every message you receive on WhatsApp to be true, especially forwarded messages. Always be skeptical of the authenticity of such kind of messages before sharing it. It is better to wait for a number of media outlets to share the same news rather than sharing something that has not been verified.
2.) PERFORM A KEYWORD SEARCH ON GOOGLE
If you notice a suspicious message on WhatsApp and are not too sure whether it is true, perform a Google Search of selected keywords from that message.
If the information is authentic, a lot of articles will populate on the top of the search results.
You can then check the source of these articles and make an informed decision.
3.) USE TOOLS TO DEBUNK FAKE IMAGES
Not every image you see might be true. There have been numerous instances of morphed images shared online especially on WhatsApp to insight violence or share a political agenda.
Fortunately, there are a number of free mobile tools available that you can use to verify if an image is real or morphed. Here are some of the tools you can use:
All of these tools are reverse image checkers, by uploading an image on any of these tools, it will scan the internet and check if there are images similar to the one you have uploaded.
Morphed Image of President Jacob Zuma dancing up close and personal with singer Babes Wodumo shared on social media in 2016
If an image has been morphed, you will be able to see the original image in the search results.
4.) DO A SOCIAL MEDIA CHECK
Check the social media accounts of institutes or organizations involved in the rumors. More often than not, they will try to debunk any misinformation spread about the company themselves.
5.) SCRUTINIZE THE HEADLINES
If a message that you receive on WhatsApp has a headline that predicts a future disaster, there is a high chance that this is a fake message.
I am sure you must have received messages on WhatsApp about the world ending in 2012? That is one example of a predictive message.
Does the content of the message make you angry? That could be a fake message too.
Scrutinize the headlines of every message you receive. You will soon be able to spot a genuine one from a fake one. Predictive disaster or messages that induce anger are spread just to cause panic and violence among people.
6.) CHECK THE URL
Always check the URL’s links that you receive, especially the domain name. Most of the sites that spread fake or unverified news have ridiculous or outlandish domain names and are not well known.
7.) REACH OUT TO FACT-CHECKING MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS
There are a number of outlets on Twitter like SM Hoax-Slayer (@SMHoaxSlayer), Alt News (@AltNews) and Boom Fact Check (@Boomlive_in) that constantly call out fake news.
You might have had the video on your WhatsApp by now. It’s viral showing cars crashes into nothing or into a Ghost car which is not visible. The title says “GhostCrash” All these crashes sends shivers down the spine, looks so real, as if they crashed int… https://t.co/QrzfrazJn9
— SM Hoax Slayer (@SMHoaxSlayer) July 4, 2018
You can reach out to them if you find messages suspicious or fake.
CONCLUSION
Fake News can have drastic and often fatal consequences. It is our duty to be vigilant when it comes to sharing information online.
Always verify the source before sharing messages on WhatsApp and when in doubt, just wait to check if the news is shared on other popular outlets. Mass media can be a powerful medium, we should learn to use it responsibly
