From Pandit Nehru to Nobel Laureate, Richard Thaler, no one was spared by the fake news industry this month to further its agenda. The obsession of right-wing groups with pro-Pakistan slogans was again in the limelight and three incidents which were reported all turned out to be fake. With each passing day, those eager to portray others as anti-national are turning out to be the real anti-national elements as they cause irreparable harm to the social fabric of the country. Here is a round-up of the highlights of the month: The highlight of the month was the collage of images circulated by BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya to vilify Jawaharlal Nehru. Social media is full of derogatory statements and morphed pictures of Nehru circulated by BJP supporters. By tweeting this set of pictures of Nehru with women, Malviya made insinuations linking Hardik Patel’s alleged sex CD to Nehru’s DNA. Malviya had egg on his face when it turned out that the women showing affection towards Nehru were his sister and niece. Despite widespread outrage, Malviya neither deleted nor apologized for his attempts to malign Nehru. You can read about the story behind the nine pictures in the Alt News article here. Talking of Amit Malviya and his penchant for fake news, yet another misleading news circulated by him about the support of Demonetisation by Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler was busted by Thaler himself. Malviya had earlier cherry-picked one of Thaler’s tweets out of a conversation as evidence of his support for demonetisation. A twitter user emailed Professor Thaler with a direct question about his views on demonetization. The Nobel Laureate didn’t mince his words in his response: “The concept was good as a move to a cashless society to impede corruption but the rollout was deeply flawed and the introduction of the Rs 2000 note makes the motivation for the entire exercise puzzling.” Thaler also retweeted his response but that was not a deterrent for Malviya. Two days after the Alt News article, Malviya was once again found to be using Thaler’s name to support demonetization. Ah well! Let us move on, some people will never learn. This migration towards a more digital and less-cash economy is what Richard Thaler, the Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 2017, pointed to when he endorsed demonetisation and called it the ‘nudge theory’.. https://t.co/X9zsmNOVyz — Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) November 20, 2017 The controversy over the movie Padmavati dominated much of the headlines during the month. BJP spokesperson Sanju Verma saw in this an opportunity to pass off those making violent threats as members of Congress / SP / AAP. Sanju Verma’s claims were busted by an Alt News article that revealed the truth behind the political affiliation of those threatening violence. Verma did not take well to be corrected and went on a rant against those who pointed out the factual errors in her tweet to her. What about this and what about that! .@abhisar_sharma, who was in news a while back for reported #TaxChori claims @AltNews tore into my claims:)@AltNews news founded by Prathik Sinha,son of Mukul Sinha,rabid Modi/BJP hater,was caught faking stories about Gujarat!This Sharma&this Sinha,a case of #ChorChorMausereBhai? https://t.co/4zVMr31iMD — Sanju Verma (@Sanju_Verma_) November 20, 2017 .@AdityaMenon22 You were exposed for stoking communal tension in Kashmir,by using fake pics dating back to 2012 from Syria. You scurried for cover.Stop lecturing me,though an out of work 'journo' who is trying hard to make ends meet,has my sympathies:)Muting you.#DiscreditedHack https://t.co/aGR2b8d4Xx — Sanju Verma (@Sanju_Verma_) November 20, 2017 In November we saw yet another instance of a Government department using pictures from abroad to represent its achievements. This time it was the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways who used a picture of Gardiner expressway from Toronto, Canada on its Parivahan website. Yet another picture on website was actually of Kyle Canyon Road in Nevada, US. The images were deleted soon after the Alt news article on the topic. This is not the first time that something like this has happened. Earlier this year the Spain-Morocco border was passed off as lighting along the India border. With India having so much to showcase, we wonder why time and again Government of India is caught using pictures from another country. Using fake videos to portray the minority community as anti-national has now become a stale trick. It was no surprise therefore that the video circulated as that of Indian Muslims burning National flag and raising Pakistan Zindabad slogans in Punjab turned out to be fake.
Rivers Journal
Fake News Round-up, November 2017 – BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya is the star
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