How info-warriors in rural India are busting fake news

Helping Share Hyper-Local Information

- Yudhajit Shankar Das

Always glued to his smartphone at a Covidcare centre in Shopian town of south Kashmir, Adnan Tak drew the curiosity of other patients. “I told them that I was letting people in the district know about the facilities at the government-run centre and countering rumours on social media about a spike in the number of Covid cases,” says Tak, who was himself down with the novel coronavirus disease then.

His photos and posts of patients playing basketball and availability of running water at the Covid centre were an evidence-based response to those spreading misinformation on the alleged lack of amenities there. Every day, during the entire period of the lockdown, the 26-year-old kept putting out accurate data of cases, recoveries and deaths — which he sourced from the local administration — to counter fake reports of spiralling Covid numbers and casualties being loosely shared on various social media platforms.