Fake news in the time of disaster: How Kerala battled with misinformation during floods

Along with floods which led to the death of nearly 200 people, Kerala also battled with a spate of fake news.

Multiple outlets and individuals peddled false news and theories. A man dressed in army attire claimed that Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan was not allowing the Army to conduct relief work.

“Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan do you think the army will take over the administration? Aren’t there any sensible people in your cabinet? Is Kodiyeri Balakrishnan the only minister? He must have had a bad experience with the army in the past. Today, I realized how senseless you are!” the man said in the video.

The Additional Directorate General of Public Information, Indian Army, tweeted that the man was an impostor and spreading fake news. However, the video was watched over 4,37,000 times and shared nearly 28,000 times.

Imposter wearing Army combat uniform in video spreading disinformation about rescue & relief efforts. Every effort by all & #IndianArmy aimed to overcome this terrifying human tragedy.Forward disinformation about #IndianArmy on WhatsApp +917290028579. We are at it #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/ncUR7tCkZW

— ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) August 19, 2018

In another instance, Suresh Kochattil, whose audio clip did the rounds of Whatsapp groups, claimed that most people affected by the floods were from ‘well-to-do families’, so they do not need any handouts. He went on to say that people should consider donating to Seva Bharathi rather than the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.

“I wanted the fund collection business by NGOs and other organizations to CMs relief fund and other not-so well-known organizations. No one will know where the money will end up. Instead, give it to the organizations that will do good work. You are free to donate to anyone you want, including CMs Relief Fund,” he said in a Facebook post, after facing backlash.

Kochattil was the head of the Hyderabad chapter of Modi’s social media campaign for 2014 general elections.

The official page of RSS shared a picture from 2012, claiming that the RSS was helping people in Kerala but have since edited the caption to “This reporter covered the relief activity in 2012 (photo ). He covered the flood relief in 2018 also. Hopefully, more media personnel cover this."

As the disaster unfolded, CM Vijayan had requested the public to not believe in any information shared by people other than government officials amid rumours like dams bursting and Kerala State Electric Board shutting down operations.