The earthquake in Turkiye and Syria was the most prominent topic of false claims in the month of February, accounting for 17.5 per cent of all our fact-checks. Following this was Islamophobia - a topic of recurring prominence - featuring in 16.5 per cent of our fact-checks.
BOOM did 97 fact-checks this month, in English, Hindi, and Bangla, each of them debunking a unique false or misleading claim.
Our analysis revealed that the majority of claims are Political in nature, accounting for 23 per cent of the data set, followed by Alarmist and Islamophobia related claims, comprising 22 per cent and 17.5 per cent of the total claims respectively. Further analyses of the claims pertaining to the above mentioned 'natures' reveal that false information closely followed real life incidents that made the rounds in traditional news circles.
A closer look at Alarmist claims revealed that the surge in their numbers was due to the catastrophic earthquakes in the past month in Syria/Turkey, and then in Tajikistan. Such claims led to 21 separate fact-checks. Nearly all the claims were sensationalist in nature, intended to use the news interest around this topic to generate traction.
A few examples are provided below -
News outlets share old photo from Ukraine as Turkiye earthquake victim
Several news outlets including IANS Live, News 18 Hindi, and ETV Bharat have recently shared a photograph of a minor boy sitting on rubble falsely linking it to...
stage at the Ninth Circuit, where pharmaceutical companies say a momentous new ruling "illustrates perfectly" the constitutional concerns of U. S. Supreme Court justices regarding FCA enforcement. ...