How to identify the fake news? #Senditback

In the last few years, fake news has proved to be a social media epidemic. Fake news refers to the deliberate spread of misinformation through both traditional and digital forms of media.

The issue of fake news is extremely problematic as its spread has resulted in great chaos and violence. It has been known to result in the spread of ideological propaganda as well. Therefore every social media user needs to be aware of the dangers of forwarding fake news. India has the largest number of social media users globally across multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube and Tik Tok.

Fake forwards are a menace to the society, and there must be awareness created on the issue of identifying fake news. Social media ends up fueling rumours, false stories and hate speech. In 2019, fake news reached an unprecedented level of social anarchy when it resulted in two tourists being lynched in Assam and triggered an immense amount of misinformation all across social media. As a direct result of this, various social media platforms have released their guidelines on how to identify and report fake news.

Brands such as Lava have taken the responsibility of educating the public on the importance of the verification of fake news. Through its #SendItBack 🔙 campaign launched on Republic Day, Lava aims to promote the necessity of fact-checking all news forwarded on social media. The brand used this Republic Day to talk about the many dangers of spreading fake news & thus wishes to generate meaningful conversations through its #SendItBack 🔙 campaign. It emphasizes on the importance of verifying the news that we receive over social media. Fake news can be identified by evaluating the publisher’s credibility. Users should check the quality and source of the messages they receive, and also run them past fact-checking websites. Lava encourages all social media users to put an end to the spreading of misinformation by sending it back to the sender to verify the forwarded message. Lava urges all social media users to use the ‘back’ emoji to verify the authenticity of the messages shared with them. The #SendItBack 🔙 campaign also embodies Lava’s core concept of being Proudly Indian. This campaign seeks to promote a sense of caution amongst social media users in India.

Lava aims to spark an online movement against the spread of fake news so that social media cannot be used to perpetuate violence and misinformation. Thus the brand prides itself on being proudly Indian and wants to bring about a larger behavioural change by encouraging people to responsibly curb fake news.