As part of the ‘Times Verified’ campaign, readers send suspicious messages circulating on social media to this paper’s WhatsApp number 9819888887. To verify their credibility, our expert panel – composed of journalists, editors and representatives of the municipality and government – taps. In the network of its sources.
Since the national launch of the ‘Times Verified’ initiative on November 21 last year, TOI’s editorial team has received over 1.5 lakh messages, more than half of which turned out to be false. Apart from misleading international headlines like “Due to rising temperatures, Indian Oil Corporation warns against filling petrol to the maximum limit as it may lead to fuel tank explosion”, “BCCI considering banning Virat Kohli Having more Gautam Gambhir From the Indian Premier League for 2 years after the recent brawl during an IPL game, the misinformation also included messages such as, “In a report published by the International Commission of Jurists in collaboration with the United Nations AIDS agency report, all There has been a demand to decriminalize sexual activities.” , including between adults and minors”.
An international study suggested that websites are using AI tools such as ChatGPT to churn out news articles, raising concerns about the potential spread of unverified information. The report pointed to a website that published an article with the headline: “Biden Dead. Harris to Address Acting President, 9am ET.”
In this scenario, it is important to build up an army of chain-breakers. Our brigade includes Vivek Amonkar and Vijay Dongre from Maharashtra, Niladri Acharya from Karnataka, Govinda Raju from Tamil Nadu and Kedar Nath Srivastava from Bihar.