How Indian Elections 2014 Influenced Me to Check4Spam.com
I have had many triggers during 2014 which eventually drove me to start my fact-checking venture and later turned into Check4Spam. One of the triggers was the fake stories which were spreading around the social media as a preparation for 2014 Indian General Elections.
Since the start of Check4Spam, we have always wanted to stay away from politics. Later in 2015, when we took the serious steps with the venture, my Co-Founder Mr. Bal Krishn Birla also had the same opinion. So we never really aggressively picked up those many political narratives which were circulating in abundance since 2014 or a little earlier.
The 2014 general elections in India was, at that time, estimated to be India’s most expensive election.
BJP had spent Rs. 714.28 Crores while the Congress spent Rs. 486.21 Crores. (Reference: TOI)
The most striking difference was the almost monopoly of BJP at the social media. Congress hardly even knew how to create a twitter account, if you allow me to exaggerate a little. :-)
Now, look at the picture below, you see the difference in when they joined Twitter? 2009 Vs 2015. Yes, during 2014 elections Rahul Gandhi did not even have an official Twitter Account, and I thought I was exaggerating. Let me take back that statement saying it was an exaggeration. :)
On Facebook, Congress wasn’t so slow. They had a late presence for the 2014 elections campaign.
A statistics of Indian social media presence in 2015 shows 142.23 Million and bound to increase to 447.9 Million by 2023.
During 2014, nearly 90% or more of the social media traffic in India has been on Facebook. (Source)
Here is a statistics about how the Facebook Pages Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janatha Party & Dr. Subramanian Swamy (Today the same page is renamed as Shankh Naad) performed during the 2014 Election season 1st Jan 2014 to 31st May 2014.
Let’s look at Congress now. Do note that as a Party, Congress had higher interactions compared to BJP, but all of them were no close to the page Narendra Modi.
So why am I talking about 2014 Elections?
For people who have been active on social media during 2014, you might remember the flurry of pro-BJP or anti-Congress or Communal Hatred images that were circulating on social media.
Dangerous Speech in Real Time: Social Media, Policing, and Communal Violence - epw.in/engage
Recalling early 2014 and the General Elections, I wish the awareness about Fake News which we have today, existed in 2014 as well.
Fake News awareness was simply in its very infant stage in India during 2014. We still had to rely on Snopes for almost everything at that point.
During March 2014, just a month before the votes, exhausted with the repeated debunking of photoshoped images, I created a Facebook Page and named it False News - India.
I started to post at this new Facebook Page the debunking pictures I could find over the internet. However, if I remember correctly, boosting posts and Ads were not so friendly or cheap during those times on Facebook and this page actually never took off the way I wanted it to.
Now, I want to share a few pictures which I had posted on False News - India. The real credit for these debunks, the pictures and the statements in the pictures goes to someone else. I had found these details at a Quora article and unfortunately I am yet to locate that article again to give the exact credits of the pictures, the debunks and the statements to them. I will keep trying.
I also remember going through this below blog as well to find the same pictures.
Here We Go.!
Any many many more ..!
During August 2014 I had a bookmarkable incident in my social media life. I got blocked from Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s Facebook Page.
When Dr. Swami busted the 2G Scam during 2011, many Indians like me became a huge fan of him. I became a very frequent visitor of his Facebook Page.
There was always an occasional hate post at Dr. Swamy’s page, which didn’t bother me much, but the rate caught up very good speed nearing to the 2014 Elections. It was more wicked and planned hatred towards a community. I was getting busy busting them or reasoning the posts and eventually the most unexpected happened. I was blocked on the page.!
The video below was published during July 2013. Don’t miss the discussion from 17:00 minutes; and around 17:55 Dr. Swami spoke about the Divide & Rule propaganda.
Now the point I want to make is; social media in India was different during 2014. There were many political propaganda which used Fake News for it’s functioning. The awareness of Fake News was almost naive. There was no AltNews, no active BoomLive, neither Check4Spam nor SMHoaxSlayer for common man’s rescue. Neither was there popular Video Bloggers, or Standup Comedians or Social Media activists who were one way or the other helping to bust fake news.
So today, in 2019, as we all are heading to the next General Election in India, it will be nice to see from every Indian to take a peek back to realize the FALSEHOOD that was carried out in 2014 which they might have missed.
Today there are many fact-checkers based out of India. However the creators of fake stories are also aware of our existence. They play less with pictures now and more with narratives which cannot be easily proven wrong. However there are still plenty of stories which are getting busted every day.
My request to all of you is simply to fact-check each and every news, at least till election completes, before sharing it across with others.
Indian elections have most of the times been Choosing the Less Evil. So until may be till the election system in India changes, we may have to continue to select the Less Evil.
Happy Elections 2019. Jai Hind!
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