Fake News

4 May 2019 (AP) - A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out. Here are the real facts:

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CLAIM: “Elijah Cummings wrote a bill to keep all of Obama’s records sealed, but he insists that Congress must see all of President Trump’s financial records.”

by AMANDA SEITZ and BEATRICE DUPUY

20 Apr 2019; (AP) - A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out. Here are the real facts:

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CLAIM: Man who threw boy over Minnesota mall balcony is a Somali immigrant.

15 Apr 2019; Alt News: A viral post on Facebook claims that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman has openly come out in support of the BJP and voted for the party in the ongoing Lok Sabha election. The post has a photograph of a person who looks similar to Wing Commander Varthaman, and is seen sporting a saffron scarf with the BJP symbol imprinted on it.

A popular, predictable and oft-used strategy on social media is to foment division along communal lines by spreading misinformation. There are numerous instances, wherein a coordinated and organized attempt to vitiate inter-faith relations has been observed. The tactics employed in this regard are predictable – use of unrelated images and/or videos, or through provocative text.