We studied online misinformation in India during the second wave of the COVID crisis. We find a dramatic rise of 'utilitarian' misinformation, purporting to 'deal with' the issue, compared with blame-oriented misinformation, purporting to find 'those at fault' in 2020.

(1/6) Image
A rise in misinformation about traditional cures, anti-vaccine propaganda, plasma, and oxygen. Such stories corner concerns about technology-enabled surveillance, vaccine-related uncertainty, institutional failure. Interestingly, influencers play big role in spread
(2/6) Image
We see themes of anti-vaccine misinformation from elsewhere in the world repeated here. While @BillGates is frequently target of such misinformation on a/c of his foundation's work, now misinfo about microchips from Microsoft injected into vaccines are now doing rounds.

(3/6)
Plasma-related misinformation is a major problem. Since several major influencers have amplified the topic, misinformation is both hidden in 'whatsapp forwards' but also woven into calls for help on Twitter.

(4/6)
Hospital, Oxygen, Plasma-related misinformation has been popular, in part because it crafted in a way to offer average citizens a means to feel they were 'playing their part', either through donating (plasma or cash) or by proxy, by forwarding messages

(5/6)

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More from @joyopal

28 May
As @Twitter & @WhatsApp tussle with India continues, we examined tweets on #CongressToolkit to understand the trigger event.

We find systematic tweeting, involving several key leaders. Fun find, while @sambitswaraj was center of controversy, his wasn't the firestarter

1/4
On May 18, tweeting #CongressToolkit started systematically before dawn. In first 10 hrs 65 tweets from BJP leaders w/ over 500k followers had circulated, over 1000 influencers w/over 5k followers had amplified the message.

2/4 Image
Twitter handles with 15k or more followers were key to amplifying the message, this is a tactic seen across other online campaigns. Several of these handles are extremely influential.

Of the 10 most active in promoting #CongressToolkit ALL were followed by @narendramodi Image
Read 5 tweets
12 Mar
We traced the social media following of Indian politicians between December 2020 and March 2021 to see who gained and lost followers and engagement. Lots happened - farm protests, violence, elections.

The grand winner is @MahuaMoitra

Other results:
Yogi Adityanath consistently fastest growing politician in 1M + group, racing past @rajnathsingh @ShashiTharoor @nitin_gadkari @PiyushGoyal.

Only @narendramodi @AmitShah @ArvindKejriwal and @RahulGandhi have more followers. At this rate, Yogi will move up sooner than later Image
To check the robustness of our data, we tested who were the accounts that lost the most followers or stagnated, these include Ananth Kumar, Arun Jaitley, Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmed Patel, Ram Vilas Paswan, Manohar Parrikar – all of whom have died recently.
Read 10 tweets
11 Mar
Paper on the history of disability in Indian cinema from Jeevan Naiya (1936) to Guzaarish (2010) shows role of mythology in how films have portrayed disabled characters on screen. key themes: Disability is (a) punishment (b) curable (c) asexual (d) social maladjustment

thread: Tarachand Barjatya's Dosti (1964) has two men Ramu and Mohan
Disability as Punitive: Pran blinded in Aadmi (1968), MR Radha disfigured in Ratha Kaneer (1954). This idea derives from a mythological notion of punishment through disability, eg Amba/Ambalika's children in Mahabharata, Samba cursed with leprosy in Samba Purana MR Radha, a rude and licentious man with 'western ways' in R
Disability as curable: Films with cured blindness, disabled walking after inspirational songs etc. (Basant 1942, Kannan en Kadhalan 1968) Mythological characters cured of disablement after penance/knowledge eg Samba, sage Ashtavakra.

Moral: try hard enough, you can 'fix' it MGR cures Kanchana of disability by singing an inspirational
Read 16 tweets
17 Apr 20
We studied misinformation around COVID-19 in India since Jan 2020. Results + full archive here:

joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/temporal-patte…

Misinformation has:
1. grown steadily, particularly after Janata Curfew
2. moved towards cultural issues

@SyedaZainabA @saumya_sagarika @Divyanshukukret 👏
Misinformation about curing COVID-19 has declined as more people have been made aware there is no cure.

So while fact-based misinformation appears to be declining, misinformation that tries to create emotional affect - cultural issues, police brutality etc. have increased.
In particular, since the Tablighi Jamaat case surfaced, the misinformation has turned significantly against Muslims as we see in this figure comparing wordclouds of tags to misinformation in three 10-day periods since mid-March.
Read 13 tweets
22 Mar 20
We created an archive of misinformation in India on #coronavirus with key patterns of fake content, using debunked news from @AltNews @boomlive_in @IndiaToday @FactlyIndia @QuintFactCheck @vishwasnews

Patterns/links to debunked pieces

joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/an-archive-of-…

@SyedaZainabA 👏
Visual/stylistic patterns:

Superimposing false text under formal-looking/legitimate sources
Data w/o traceable citation
Use of Corona-unconnected people with East Asian features
Use of details – temperatures, public figures
Use of “Breaking News”

joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/an-archive-of-…
Content patterns of COVID19 misinformation:

Four themes
1. alarmism
2. cure-related
3. culture-related
4. nature & the environment.

While the motives for misinformation can vary, a number of media houses and politicians have promoted false content

joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/an-archive-of-…
Read 7 tweets
10 Mar 20
We mapped Indian journalists' online footprint to study influence of commentators on Twitter

1. TV and digital journalists do better than print

2. @thewire_in does well

3. TV anchors consistently on top

Details and methodlogy:
joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/indian-journal…

@DibyenduMishra 👏 Image
Specifically, @RanaAyyub @khanumarfa @fayedsouza @abhisar_sharma get overall highest engagement, but less followed accounts including @vinodjose @someshjha7 @nit_set @arvindgunasekar @sharmasupriya @milindkhandekar consistently influential/talked about journalists
Twitter universe in India has a high engagement bias towards English-language journalists, who get much more engaged than local language journalists.
Read 6 tweets

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