Verified By BOOM 26

Hi 

This week was abuzz with exit polls, election results and more with the 🪷 Bharatiya Janata Party winning in Gujarat, ✋ Congress in Himachal Pradesh and the🧹 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. 

As the news cycle moves on, so do the misinformation trends. In this edition, I will digress a bit and talk about something that a fact-checker goes through every single day and is less talked about or instead less thought about. 

👋 I'm Divya Chandra, a fact-checker & producer of Verified by BOOM, let's begin.

I am referring to

mental health

. We, as fact-checkers, watch gory visuals on a loop to be able to understand what is happening and identify elements that might give us some clues. 

All of this comes at a cost— fact-checker's mental health.🙆

Let me give you an example. I was working on a story wherein I had to verify a video showing a bull being hit which was being claimed to be from India. The video was shot in such a way that it was very difficult to find any elements that would give a hint about its location. 

So, not only did I have to watch the viral video again and again, but also ended up going through multiple videos on different social media platforms wherein a bull was being hit. 

After a point, I just couldn't and shut my laptop. I walked around, spoke to some people, took a break and then switched on my laptop. 

What I am trying to say is:

one should realise when to stop and just switch themselves off. 

👉 At BOOM, we have proper mental health guidelines and policies in place for fact-checkers. For example, if there is a triggering video going viral, we warn our colleagues with a ⚠️

'trigger warning'

so that everybody doesn't watch it and if they do they know that it's a triggering video. 

↪️ Was this forwarded to you?

🤑 BJP Pages Spent Over ₹4Cr On FB Ads In November; AAP & Congress Far Behind 

🔖 The official Facebook page of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Gujarat unit spent Rs 2.65 crore in advertisements between 4 November - 3 December, emerging as the biggest spender in India, just ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections.

BOOM looked at the top 15 highest spenders on Facebook ads, and found some interesting trends. Read this explainer by BOOM. 

👟 A Daily Wager From Maharashtra Is Fighting Against Facebook For A Shoe He Never Got 

🔖 On a usual morning in September 2020, Tribhuvan, a daily wage labourer who lives in a village called Umari in Maharashtra, logged on to Facebook. 

As he scrolled through his feed, a catchy advertisement offering massive discounts on shoes, belts, and goggles caught his attention. 

He ordered the shoe but never got it. Read this story by Decode to know about how Tribhuvan became a victim of scams and his fight against Facebook.

☣️ 

Are Sanitary Napkins Dangerous? Well, India Has No Guidelines For Use Of Chemicals

🔖 After a Delhi-based environmental NGO released a study that sanitary napkins sold in India carry high amounts of chemicals linked with heart disorders, diabetes and cancer, news outlets carried it with a focus on cancer, raising fear among people. 

But are sanitary napkins really that dangerous? What kind of impact can such news have? 

BOOM spoke to the researchers of the study and health experts and asked them these vital questions. We tried to understand why and how the use of sanitary pads can cause serious health complications and what can be the solutions.  

🔖 A purported newspaper clipping claiming a Right To Information reply revealed Morbi civic body spent Rs 30 crore on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's one-day visit to the town after the bridge collapse, is fake. 

BOOM found that both the newspaper clipping and supposed RTI reply are fake. 

🔖 The photo of a primary school classroom from the village of Manela in Punjab went viral with a false claim on social media. The picture, which shows school children seated around a conference table, was shared as a change in the education sector in Punjab by the Aam Aadmi Party government. 

What's the truth? Read this fact-check by BOOM.

We have been rigorously conducting LIVE workshops on busting fake news and telling you how to consume media. Check out our existing courses👇

If you have suggestions about this newsletter or want us to conduct workshops on specific topics, drop us a line at 👉 

[email protected]

 and we will get back to you in a jiffy.

Thanks for reading. See you next Saturday 👋