A Year Later: The Fatal Price of Fake News During COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Drinking cow urines, pouring bodies with cow dungs, Islamophobia, Xenophobia, and all the lives that lost. Those were among the the direct and indirect results of the misinformation in India during the peak of COVID-19.

For the fact-checker Bharat Nayak, the cause of the misinformation during pandemic in India cannot be explained by just one factor. But one of them was tradition.

There was a strong belief of traditional medicine when COVID just came, and people did not like it when their practice was questioned. 

"When you give correct health information especially which contradicts with Homeopathy or Naturopathy, people are not ready to accept that health information because they think we are questioning their ancestral knowledge," said Bharat Nayak, the founding editor of The Logical Indian. 

In his conversation with Liputan6.com Virtual Class, Bharat explained how the misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic became fatal as people decided to let down their guards and put their lives at risk by consuming questionable treatment.  

The media literacy also became another problem since people easily believed messages they found on social media, including YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As in many countries, there were also irresponsible politicians in India who pushed the misinformation. 

Some also polarized the people by spreading divisive pandemic misinformation that targeted the Muslim community.

And then the influencers started to act like doctors on social media to give medical advices. And people believed them. 

"Quakes and social media influencers are not experts, they are not doctors, but they were more believed, because they add emotions and past nostalgia to any kind of health advisory they give," said Bharat.

"There was an event held where 200 people camped together to drink cow urine in India, thinking they wouldn't get coronavirus. And politicians were equally involved in spreading that misinformation," Bharat said.

India faced the "tsunami" of COVID-19 in the mid of 2021. Daily cases reached hundreds of thousands and hospitals were overwhelmed. But around the same time, another misinformation was spread in India to drink cow urine to prevent COVID-19. 

"There was an event held where 200 people camped together to drink cow urine in India, thinking they wouldn't get coronavirus. And politicians were equally involved in spreading that misinformation," Bharat said.

Eventually people started to learn the lesson about misinformation, but only after so many died in that second wave of pandemic.

"In the second wave a lot of Indians died that people came to senses that now you have to take precaution; you can't just believe on old knowledge or knowledge spread on WhatsApp," said the fact-checker.

Indonesia will soon face another election of 2024. The election will take place on the Valentine's Day, and the citizens will vote for the presidents and parliamentary members. 

The fake news was massively circulating in the previous major elections, particularly the Jakarta Gubernatorial Election in 2017 and the Presidential Election in 2019. Therefore, bitter political misinformation may be expected to scar the day of love. 

India was just having an election earlier this year. When asked if there is any advice for Indonesian fact-checkers, Bharat puts spotlight on media literacy and the young generation. 

Bharat said in India the news media already try to reach out more people to raise their awareness of misinformation. This way, the people will have stronger critical thinking.

"So people are more resilient against the fake news. When you do that, you actually help people in a better way," said Bharat.

Liputan6.com has also done a similar program last year as a part of our fact-checking program. We collaborated with local activists in various regions all over the archipelago to reach people, especially in remote areas, so they can have better awareness about hoaxes. This program was supported by a grant from the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) during COVID-19 pandemic.

But the most interesting advice from Bharat is to involve the younger generation. Bharat believes that ultimately hoaxes can be defeated by changing the mindset of the people, and the children can do so because they are more open-minded to receive new information. 

"In elder generation, they already have prejudices, they already have thinking that is orthodox and hard to challenge them," Bharat elaborated.

And the children can make the changes at home. Even a dining table conversation can make a huge change in the war against hoaxes.

"When house conversation changes, like when the younger generation say, 'OK, you receive this message, that can be false to their elders,' then the parents start thinking," said Bharat.

Watch the full conversation with Bharat with Liputan6.com Virtual Class: