THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when the state government is trying its best to fight Covid-19, it is equally engaged in a pitched battle with another ‘contagion’ that, if unchecked, can wreak havoc in society — rumours and fake news.
Ever since the epidemic spread its tentacles in the state, social media and cyber platforms have been flooded with fake news and lies, which are being peddled as cardinal truths. The route map of this ‘contagion’ is almost impossible to be prepare, as the spread of the wildest rumours has been swifter than coronavirus itself. This has forced the government to set up fact-checking teams in the Information and Public Relations (PRD) and Heath Departments to deal with the menace. The special teams, in association with the police, are helping the state mount an offence against rumour mongers.
The PRD and the Health department have set up district-level teams and state monitoring units to fight fake news. The district-level teams mount surveillance on WhatsApp and other social media platforms and send a report to their directorates, who then take up the matter with the police’s Cyber Cell.PRD’s monitoring cell officials said they have reported a little more than 100 cases, while the Health Department detected around 125 such cases till Friday.
Sources in the two departments said the numbers are just the tip of the iceberg and numerous canards can be unearthed if social media and cyber space are scoured more vigorously, which is not possible at present due to lack of resources. A source in the PRD’s rumour-busting cell said one of the trends noted was that names of influential people were being used to mislead people. “A message was circulated in the name of a district collector, saying alcohol would be provided online. Some might think it’s true,” the source said.
Health Department sources said they mostly have to deal with ‘wonder drugs’ and ‘quackery’. The reports are compiled in its head office by going through the files sent from all the districts. Most of the posts have almost similar contents, like anti-malarial drugs being a panache for all Covid worries or newspapers spreading the disease.
A senior officer with the police hi-tech cell said legal action has been taken in many cases. “Many forwarded the messages thinking they were true and could be useful for the public. However, the real culprits are those who generate such messages. If we want to track them, we have to trace all the people who forwarded the message, so that we can reach the first chain. But it’s a time-consuming process and will take months,” said the officer.