Smart Hacks To Deal With Fake News On WhatsApp For Senior Citizens

Here’s how you can identify fake news on WhatsApp and prevent falling prey to it. 

At the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic in India, one of the most difficult tasks the government had on its hands apart from tackling the deadly virus was controlling the massive spread of misinformation and fake news related to it. Starting from unverified home remedies to circulating fake advisories directing common people to stay away from foods like ice cream and chicken and forwarding conspiracy theories, social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp were flooded with misinformation. India’s stock exchange witnessed the highest low since 2010 due to Corona scare, people started falling ill after consuming cow urine as medicine and the poultry market faced a major loss worth millions. The fake news crisis in the country became so appalling that the Prime Minister was compelled a few months back to address the nation and appeal to the citizens to not fall prey to fake news.

WhatsApp has emerged to be one of the most used platforms to spread fake news. Mostly because it is a free service and it’s easy to share things with just a click. In an attempt to help senior citizens identify fake news on WhatsApp, Shreya Bajaj from Easy Hai gave some useful tips during a tech class for seniors conducted by Silver Talkies.

A few easy steps to detect fake news on WhatsApp

Do a gut check: This is the most important and simplest thing to do. How many of us really put our heart and mind to understand if the news is logical before we forward it? Instead of blindly forwarding a chunk of information, first analyse whether the news is rational and seems right and practical. Check if the news has been published by multiple major media houses in the same format. If not, it is definitely fake.

Fact Check on Google: How about checking whether an advisory on WhatsApp is fake or real? You may get confused and a gut check may not help in such cases. The best thing to do here is to do a simple Google search. Just put on the keywords of an article on Google, type ‘fact check’ before the keywords and check if there are any articles from a valid source covered by any major media house. Google now has a dedicated team who are into fact-checking. The moment you put the word ‘fact check’ you will actually get a list of articles that will help you debunk fake news. Go for what the majority of articles have to say.

Look at the URL (website link or address) closely: It is important to check the URLs of news websites where an article gets published. Often fake news writers make fake websites with fake URLs that appear similar to the original URLs of reputed publication houses. Common people often tend to overlook the discrepancies and start believing a piece of fake news to be real. Hence, it is important to be cautious about the URLs and in case you come across any inconsistency including a mis-spelling or a spinoff of other news sites, please do a simple Google search and recheck the original URL to find out if a news link on WhatsApp is fake or real.

Be aware of certain tools that can help you identify whether a website is fake or real: You may make use of the website Whois.com to find out who the owner of a website is. This tool helps you to identify the owner of any website you pick. It will give you the ownership details of a website. Thus, you will be able to easily point out which website is fake and which is real by using this tool.

Seek the help of fact-checking websites and fact-checking numbers: You may go to fact-checking websites the purpose of which is to debunk fake news. So, you will know what fake news is like and you can point out fake news on WhatsApp easily. Also, on WhatsApp, there are fact-checking numbers. You may forward a piece of news to these numbers and they respond if the news is fake or real within 24 hours.

Here’s a list of fact-checking websites 

Boomlive

AltNews

India Today

The Logical Indian

FactChecker

Here are some fact-checking numbers

Alt News: 9825255790

Boom: 7700906111 / 7700906588

Digit Eye: 9632830256

Fact Crescendo – Hindi: 9049053770

Fact Crescendo- Malayalam: 9049046809

Fact Crescendo – Marathi: 9049043487

Factly: 9603132132

India Today: 7370007000

Newschecker: 9999499044

Newsmobile: 8826800707

Understand what is a frequently forwarded message on WhatsApp: WhatsApp tells you whether a message has been forwarded and frequently forwarded or not. If you check the top left corner of a message on WhatsApp, you will notice a single arrow in case a message is forwarded and a double arrow in case it is frequently forwarded. Keep an eye on such frequently forwarded messages with double arrow marks as they may be fake. WhatsApp keeps a count on the chats and it starts marking a message if it is frequently forwarded which is most likely to be false.

Match the image with the caption: That’s another hack to point out if the news is fake or real. In case the image captions or the story content does not correspond with the image, then it’s definitely fake news.

Be watchful of articles which are wishy-washy about the date, time and place: A news report always mentions the date, time and place of the incident covered, be it in the format of a video or a story. In case you do not find these, understand it is fake. Any video can be tweaked and turned into fake news. You can go to YouTube and do a keyword search. You will be able to find out if it’s an old video and why and when was it actually created.

We believe that it is an individual’s accountability to be aware of fake news and its adverse impact. These steps can help one to prevent falling for fake news and making it viral.