Whenever India is mentioned in the country or abroad, it is almost always called the 'world's largest democracy'. If anyone tries to harm this democracy, our government is always ready to deal with it.
This year, Lok Sabha elections were held in the country and during this time, the rapid spread of misinformation and deepfakes online is justified. To deal with this and to detect misinformation immediately, the News Initiative (GNI) launched Project Shakti.
Google's initiative...
Through this project, Google promised to support the 'India Election Fact-Checking Collective'. This initiative of Google helped fact-checkers and news organizations avoid and identify fake news, deepfakes, and misleading information.
Three things Project Shakti works on
The efforts and goals of the Indian fact-checking community to combat lies and misinformation that harm democracy can be seen from these three perspectives.
1. Detect
2. Refute
3. Distribute
4. Detect: Often, three things are used to identify misinformation at scale, which includes the Meta Dashboard, Google Fact Check Explorer, and our sources. However, if the problem is large-scale, then to solve it, it will be very important to know what is happening on the ground.
5. Refute: Putting misinformation out in the open and exposing lies. Also being able to create unique content.
6. Distribute: When fact-checking detects misleading information and fake news, it is very important to spread that news to as many people as possible, especially in places from where the false news or information was spread. This will make that news reach the people and its impact can also be reduced.
Project Shakti helped media organizations a lot.
During the most important occasion in the country, Project Shakti came as a big opportunity for media organizations. At the time of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was natural that such misleading news would spread which would create apprehensions among the people. However, with the help of Project Shakti, there was a lot of help in stopping false news. This was an election in the country in which 96.88 crore voters were registered to be a part. You will be surprised to know that this is more than twice the population of the European Union!
More than 300 journalists and fact-checkers in Project Shakti
No fact-checking organization could achieve all this on its own amid such a large-scale election. Project Shakti had more than 300 journalists and fact-checkers working in 50 different locations.
By the time the election was over, Project Shakti had redistributed the largest number of fact-checks related to the election. More than 2,600 stories – based on the work of more than a dozen IFCN-signatory fact-checking newsrooms – were published by small and large media outlets, reaching people in 10 languages across 28 cities and union territories in India.
Increased trust in mainstream media
According to the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Risk Report, India ranks highest in terms of the risk of misinformation and disinformation. However, Project Shakti has helped a lot in fighting against misinformation. At the same time, big media organizations like Jagran New Media and India Today maintained their faith in fact-checking. Given this, it was for the first time that mainstream media publishers also started building trust in fact-checking.
What is Information Disorder?
Information disorder means misinformation which occurs when any false information is deliberately shared to cause harm. In today's time, it is not very difficult to deal with it. To combat misinformation, a plan was also formulated to form the Misinformation Combat Alliance, which will help combat information disorder.
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