As India battles the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a fake news 'infodemic' is also spreading on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms with numerous false claims, including about an impending emergency declaration and an extension of the lockdown period.
While official agencies and several private fact-checkers kept on promptly debunking the fake news, the full-hoaxes and half-truths continued unabated, including by some fraudsters trying to mint some easy money by circulating fake bank account details for contributions to the government relief funds.
A lot many also fell prey to an "early April Fool" prank on Monday wherein a document was circulated on social media, disguising itself as a government announcement about an extension of lockdown beyond the 21-day period.
The Indian Army also had to debunk fake news about an impending emergency declaration in April.
"Fake and malicious messages are circulating on social media about likely declaration of emergency in mid April and employment of Indian Army, Veterans, NCC and NSS to assist the civil administration. It is clarified that this is absolutely fake," the Army's Additional Directorate General of Public Information tweeted.
The government also debunked rumours about plans for extending the ongoing 21-day lockdown period, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 to fight the coronavirus crisis.
The clarification by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba came after hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers undertook long journeys from major urban centres on foot to their homes in the last five days, reflecting their struggle for survival due to job losses following the lockdown.
In a tweet, the government's Press Information Bureau said: "There are rumours & media reports, claiming that the Government will extend the #Lockdown21 when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless."
Fact checker SM Hoax Slayer said, "A Prank video is viral, tweeted by few media houses and journalists claimed to be recent and from Goa. It shows a man wearing a ghost looking suit jumping suddenly in front to a motorcycle on a bridge because of which the rider gets afraid, turns around and leave and the pillion rider climbs the bridge whom the prankster follow."
Interestingly, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said in February itself, "We are not just fighting an epidemic; we are fighting an infodemic."