How I stopped my Mom from becoming a Fake-News-Tsunami on WhatsApp.
I knew things had gotten out of hand when she sent me this message: The cow is the only animal on earth that inhales carbon-dioxide and exhales oxygen.
Unlike said cow, I had to breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide quite forcefully for a few moments while I wondered what to do. This was just one in a series of disturbing messages that I had received from her since she decided to go ‘social’.
That evening I called her up, and our conversation helped me understand three things.
One: She had not read the whole message, and had just forwarded it because she thought it sounded informative.
Two: For her generation, news was something she came across in a newspaper, or heard on the radio, or saw on TV. Information that had passed the desks of editors and other responsible adults, whose jobs depended on making sure it was factually correct. So for her, the printed word was the truth.
Unfortunately for her, and the rest of us, that world is dead.
Three: I had to help her figure out how to avoid sharing messages that were just plain false.
What I arrived at was an ABCD checklist of things to do before sharing a message on WhatsApp
Assume it is false
Guilty until proven otherwise. That’s the mantra when it comes to ‘news’ on facebook and WhatsApp. Be critical of everything that is forwarded, even if it has ‘photographic/ video’ evidence. In the age of Photoshop and deep fake videos, seeing is no longer believing.
Be a sceptic
If an expert you have never heard of before, is saying exactly what you want to hear, think twice before sharing. It is easy to find a ‘Doctor’ or ‘Scientist’ online whose ‘expert’ opinion will validate any point of view, however absurd.
The internet is a circus, and the clown with the brightest makeup, loudest laugh and funniest gag is the only one who’ll survive to perform another day.
People online will do and say anything to get you to like and subscribe, regardless of whether it is true or not.
Check everything
Take the time to read through and then, check whether it is true before sharing.
I am yet to hear of a terrorist attack or riot or child abduction or epidemic that was averted thanks to a timely whatsapp forward.
Check it yourself on any of the multiple fact checking sites available, or ask someone you trust to check it for you, or check a news channel you trust.
Forwarding messages with the asterisk ‘forwarded as received’ is just as irresponsible as making up the false message.
Don’t forward it, if it makes you angry
Politicians of all colours have realised that they have run out of political ideas that promise a bright future.
Hope is no longer on the table, so now they sell hate. And they do it by dividing the world into two opposing camps — where Their party stand for what is good and right,and The Others are working day and night to destroy us. And of course only (insert name of invincible leader here) can guide us through to the Great and Glorious Future.
To help them get to into your head, they employ troll farms — cubicles filled with unemployable graduates who specialise in creating, for the highest bidder, posts that sow the seeds of fear, uncertainty and doubt.
If a post makes you angry or afraid or apprehensive, chances are that it has been designed to make you feel that way.
Every time you share it, you become part of their propaganda machine. If it makes you angry or feel helpless, do the world a favour and delete it.
It’s been six months and I still get the odd ‘Crows are going extinct. We are next.’ message from her.
But it’s usually quickly followed by a question: ‘Is it true?’
Mom: 1
Fake news: 0
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