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Local authorities in India fight fake news crimes
The role of religion and media
India s religious fault lines have also been a major contributor to the spread of fake news online.
Disinformation targeting Muslims spiked in April last year after several members of an Islamic group who had attended a religious gathering in Delhi tested positive for COVID-19.
False claims began to circulate that Muslims were a vector of the virus. Several fake videos went viral, including a series that claimed Muslim youth were being injected with COVID-positive blood. In some places, this led to attacks on frontline workers. Some violence that recently happened against the minority communities in India can be attributed to the radicalization of individuals who have been consuming hate speech, disinformation and propaganda for a long time, said Pratik Sinha, founder of Alt News, a fact-checking website.