During August 2026, a series of misleading, fabricated and falsely contextualised claims circulated across social media platforms and media accounts in Bharat. The claims covered electoral rolls, government policies, political leaders, public protests, national symbols, law and order incidents, public institutions, electronic voting machines, government schemes and other issues of public interest.
The incidents documented during the month included claims attributed to politicians, political supporters, social media influencers, journalists and media portals. Several of the claims relied on digitally altered graphics, manipulated images, AI-generated content or old videos presented as recent events. In other cases, genuine videos were accompanied by a false narrative or a context that was unrelated to the original incident.
A recurring pattern among the documented cases involved old footage being presented as evidence of recent political or social developments. Videos from earlier protests, political programmes, clashes and public events were circulated as though they had taken place in August 2026. Several such claims involved Independence Day, anti-reservation protests, student demonstrations and political gatherings.
The report also records multiple instances in which statements were falsely attributed to public figures. Digitally altered graphics were used to attribute remarks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Delhi Chief...
During August 2026, a series of misleading, fabricated and falsely contextualised claims circulated across social media platforms and media accounts in Bharat. The claims covered electoral rolls, ...
