This was expected as a similar trend was seen during the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections. Team WebQoof had written about how the distribution of blue badges without ‘true verification’ would amplify the spread of mis/disinformation on the platform.
While INDIA leaders were targeted the most, the number of fake posts around NDA leaders make up to an extremely close second.
On going through our dataset, we found that 34 and 35 misleading and fake claims went viral around the NDA and INDIA politicians, respectively.
The Quint’s WebQoof analysis of its 110 fact-check stories showed that video remained the most dominant media type, when it came to social media users spreading mis/disinformation.
Around 75 claims were shared in the video format, which was 68.18 percent of the total number. This was followed by 25 fact-check stories (22.72 percent), where the claims were circulated in the form of an image.
Finally, news clippings and other posts …