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What Draws India's Young Adults To Andrew Tate?

September 15, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

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We welcome additional 9,000 subscribers of this newsletter to the BOOM family. Continue supporting our work so that we can fight online misinformation together and keep the internet safe.

Meanwhile, are you also a fan of Andrew Tate, a British-American media personality? A lot of young adults in India are. But, why are people so hooked to him and his content?

Read on!

🔖 Are you also watching Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by actor Amitabh Bachchan? Well, if you are then you can probably debunk this viral claim without using any verification tool.

Social media users claimed that this contestant lost the highest cash prize of Rs. 7.5 crore due to wrongly answering the final question. The question was apparently on which government built the Mahakal Lok - a temple complex in Madhya Pradesh dedicated to Hindu deity Shiva.

Even if you are not watching the show, here’s what you can do to verify the authenticity of the video:

Watch the viral video carefully and you will realise that as soon as the host, Amitabh Bachchan starts reading out the question, the audio changes completely, along with the voice and ambient sounds.
Several social media users shared the viral clip. In one such video shared by the Facebook page Satna Congress, Bachchan's voice is not synchronised with his lip movements.
Clue: These suggest that the audio has been tampered with.
Next, you can hear Bachchan addressing the contestant as"Shashwat Goel". Taking this as the hint + keyword search on YouTube and Google will lead you to a video wherein this particular episode has been uploaded.
The final question actually was: "Which British Army unit was given the motto ‘Primus in Indis’ because it was the first to serve in India?”
Basically, the viral video is an altered version and Bachchan did not ask the question related to the temple complex in Madhya Pradesh.

P.S. This YouTube video is just one source. You should always look for more independent sources to verify any claim. For finding out about other relevant sources in this case, read our fact-check article.

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By Teens, Of Teens, For Teens

🔖 This week, the teenagers at Teen Fact-Checking Network (TFCN) verified a viral video that claimed to be recorded by a camera on Chandrayaan 3. Here’s what they found!

Is This A Chandrayaan 3 Video? | Fact Check | Teen Fact Checking Network | BOOM

🅱️ Quiz

Do you know what really happened in the news this week? Find out by taking the BOOM quiz:

👆 Simply click on image below to start the quiz!

⚠️ Trigger Warning

This story has references of violence and disturbing content.

What Draws India's Young Adults To Andrew Tate?

🔖 Yash, a 14-year-old from Delhi, admires Andrew Tate - a British-American media personality, former kick-boxer, and a highly polarising internet sensation.

Tate is currently in Romania, where he stands accused of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women.

Decode’s Archis Chowdhury spoke to four of Tate's fans between the ages of 14-34, and went through multiple responses to our Reddit posts by both fans and haters, to closely examine Tate's marketing strategy. We found that Tate deploys similar recruiting techniques as those used by White Supremacists and ISIS.

The 'Laila Rao' Scam That Sold Dreams and Stole Lakhs From Women

🔖 Meanwhile, Laila Rao would sell the imagination of a perfect family online. Using pictures of a toddler and “a loving husband”, Laila Rao duped several families into investing thousands in hopes of “doubling their money”.

The scam promoted itself on Facebook and would use actor Smriti Khanna’s day-to-day activities, with captions like, “I am investor, great mom and happy wife. I can help Indian ladies.” Read this story by Titha Ghosh.

94 Fact-Checks Published

🔖 As we entered August, the eruption of communal violence at Nuh, Haryana, saw a fresh round of claims flood the internet and social media. The Chandrayaan - 3 landing sparked huge celebrations across the country which also led to a surge in false claims.

BOOM published a total of 94 unique fact-checks, in English, Hindi, and Bangla in the month of August. Claims we categorise as Alarmist, Political, and Communal accounted for 20%, 21%, and 21% of all fact-checks respectively.

20 Fact-Checks Published

🔖 Political content was at the top (55%), followed by alarmist (claims provoking stress), celebratory (claim expressing pride and/or happiness), and international claims at 10% each.

The G20 summit held in New Delhi dominated last week’s false claim roster. The latest international summit accounted for 40% of the claims.

Read our thread on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to know the detailed analysis by Debraj Sarkar.

#BOOMWeeklyReport | Last week, BOOM published a total of 20 fact-checks. Of these, political content was at the top (55%), followed by alarmist, celebratory (claim expressing pride and/or happiness), and international claims at 10% each.
#BOOMFactCheck#Thread (1/n)👇
— BOOM Live (@boomlive_in)
7:51 AM • Sep 15, 2023

Government Issues Guidelines To Combat Dark Patterns Online. What Are They?

🔖 The Union Government has recently released draft guidelines to curb “dark patterns” used by online platforms. With an aim to regulate these dark patterns, the government has sought feedback on the guidelines released.

What do we know about dark patterns? What are the different kinds of dark patterns enumerated in the guidelines? Read this explainer by Hera Rizwan.

🚫 Fake News You Almost Fell For

🔍 A morphed image showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting with United States President Joe Biden at his residence in New Delhi was circulated with a false claim that a painting present behind the duo depicted a scene from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Read this fact-check to know how 🔗Srijit Das↗️ debunked it.

🔍 🔗Hazel Gandhi↗️ debunked an old video of PM Narendra Modi raising slogans for India, the country, that went viral online with the false claim that he showed his support for the opposition's recently formed INDIA bloc.

🔍 Did ABP News opinion poll show ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh will be in a closer-than-expected contest against the opposition Congress in the state's upcoming assembly election? Find out in this fact-check by 🔗Srijit Das↗️.

🔍 An old interview of Rahul Gandhi suggesting how one should change their jacket and shoes in order to make a difference in the country went viral online with false claims that he made a blunder while speaking to the journalist. 🔗Hazel Gandhi↗️ debunked the claim.

🅱️ Recommends

📖 This week's recommendation is: Do hostile information operations really have intended effects? A literature review by C Wallenius

The author embarks on a literature review to assess the reach of false information boiler rooms. In the process, he highlights the common strategies used in deceptive messages to dissuade the receiver from criticising the presented 'information'.

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