Of all the fact-checks published, 28.4% were "Communal" in nature, followed by "International Conflict" at 16.5%, primarily related to the unrest in Bangladesh, and 12.8% focused on "Indian politics."
Bangladeshi Muslims were the primary targets of misinformation, comprising 15.6% of the false claims. A prevalent trend observed by BOOM was the use of the hashtag #SaveBangladeshiHindus on social media, which was used to spread misinformation by sharing unrelated old videos and images, falsely linking them to the situation of Hindus in Bangladesh.
Mis/disinformation in 44% of the total fact-checks were peddled using old and unrelated videos.
Additionally, 47.7% of the total fact-checks involved claims that were shared by verified accounts on X. Among those who repeatedly spread false claims on their X accounts Sudarshan News and an X user named Jitendra Pratap Singh with four instances each.
We also fact-checked news channels such as Business Today, Onmanorama, Republic, Times Now Bangla and Zee News, ANI, for instances of media misreporting.
41.3% of the total fact-checks were related to the protests and political unrest in Bangladesh that erupted in July. These protests, sparked by students opposing quotas in government jobs and the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from the country, have led to nearly 650 deaths. The unrest was accompanied by a surge of false claims,...
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