In October, BOOM published 96 fact-checks in English, Hindi and Bangla. Most of the false information we found was about Islamophobic narratives (22%), misinformation around Baba Siddique’s murder (9.4%) and fake news related to Maharashtra Assembly elections (6.3%).
Muslims in India were the main targets, comprising 18.8% of false claims. BOOM also noticed a significant amount of false information being spread by members of various political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, and Shiv Sena (UBT).
BJP member Amit Malviya shared false news in at least three instances, while the Congress party spread misinformation in two.
Additionally, we fact-checked news channels such as OpIndia, ANI, Zee, Mid-day, News9, NDTV Profit, DNA India for instances of media misreporting.
BOOM published 11 AI-generated fact-checks that targeted celebrities and TV anchors who were falsely shown endorsing medicines for arthritis or joint pain.
Nearly half of the total fact-checks involved claims that were shared by verified accounts on X.
Mis/disinformation in 43.8% of the total fact-checks were peddled using old and unrelated videos.
Theme Assessment
Mis/disinformation around Maharashtra Assembly elections
Of the total fact-checks, 7.3% were related to the Maharashtra Assembly elections which will be held on November 20, 2024.
A video went viral claiming to show former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray admitting to eating beef at a public rally.
However, BOOM found that the original video showed Thackeray actually referring to a 2015 remark by BJP leader Kiren Rijiju about eating beef, which was cut out of the viral clip. The video was taken from Thackeray’s Dussehra speech, where he criticised the BJP, accusing them of double standards on the issue of eating beef.
Similarly, several BJP members shared a video of Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole, claiming he supported Rahul Gandhi's alleged statement in the United States about ending reservations in India if his party came to power. BOOM found this claim to be false. Rahul Gandhi never said he or his party would remove reservations if elected. Instead, he made a hypothetical comment, suggesting they might consider scrapping reservations only when India became a fair place for all.
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) MLA Rohit Pawar shared an old video showing a large stack of Indian currency notes stored in a room, falsely linking it to the recent seizure of cash by police from a car in Pune near Khed Shivapur toll on Pune-Bengaluru highway.
NCP leader Baba Siddique was shot dead by three gunmen near his MLA son Zeeshan Siddique's office in Mumbai on October 12. It is alleged that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi's brother, Anmol Bishnoi, is behind the murder. Following the incident, several old and cropped videos of various celebrities were falsely circulated, linking them to Lawrence Bishnoi.
For instance, an old video of actor Salman Khan was shared stating that he threatened gangster Lawrence Bishnoi after the murder of Siddique. But BOOM found this claim to be false; the video was actually from April 2020, when Khan released a message urging people to follow COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and criticised those violating safety guidelines.
Similarly, an AI-generated voice clone of actor Sanjay Dutt was shared with claims stating that he threatened Bishnoi over the latter's alleged involvement in Siddique’s murder.
BOOM found that the video was overlaid with a voice clone of Dutt. The original footage from 2018 predates the recent murder of Siddique; in the footage the actor can be heard wishing his fans for Diwali.
AI-Generated Celebrity/TV Anchor Endorsements Used in Health Scams
Medium, Intent & Type of Deception
78.1% of the 96 fact-checks were shared via videos, followed by images (14.6%) and texts (6.3%).
Regarding the intent behind spreading mis/disinformation, 86.5% of the total fact-checks were under the “Sensationalist” category. This was followed by “Smear Campaigns” against Indian political leaders (7.3%) and the intent of spreading “Demographic Anxiety” (6.3%).
73% of the total fact-checks consisted of false content, followed by fabricated and manipulated content at 11.5% each.
