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Susan* woke up one morning to a flurry of hate messages in her Instagram inbox. Her video had been morphed, her face was replaced with the actress Kajol’s face. The deepfake video had gone viral in India, while Susan was thousands of kilometres away in another country.

Read on!

🔖 41 workers who were trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel since 12 November after a landslide struck the area were finally rescued this week. The rescue mission, which involved tunneling experts from overseas as well, captured people's attention in India and made headlines globally.

But some headlines gathered attention for a different reason. News outlets including The New Indian Express, News 18, India Today, Hindustan Times, Loksatta ran this synthetically created image while crediting news agency PTI for the same.

BOOM’s Anmol Alphonso found that the viral photo is an AI-generated one and not an actual photo taken after the successful rescue operation.

But, some of you might be wondering: so what, right? It’s harmless anyway.

BOOM’s Managing Editor Jency Jacob writes, “Many may argue this is harmless. But if newsrooms are going to keep such a low bar and fail to recognise AI generated images, imagine what will happen when it’s something more sinister and dangerous. The gatekeepers are failing in the first round itself.”

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📢 Fact-Checking In The North-East

BOOM is conducting a series of workshops on sourcing reliable information related to issues in the north-east. Register for the online event on Thursday, 7 December and share your experiences related to fact-checking in the north-east of India.

Register Now

It’s Terrifying To Be A Woman Content Creator In The Age Of Deepfakes

🔖 The internet is a scary place for women, but with deepfakes being easy to create it has become even more dangerous.

Decode’s Adrija Bose spoke to women content creators and AI experts to understand the gendered trouble with deepfakes. The onus of reporting also falls on the victims.

*Name changed to protect identity.

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The Not-So-Secret Lives Of Viral Myth-Busting Snake Rescuers

🔖 When thirty two-year-old Akash Kumar, also known as Murli Wale Hausle, a renowned snake rescuer from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, rescued snakes into forests in eastern Uttar Pradesh, a camera followed him.

The act was filmed and the footage shared on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. What happened next? Find out in Asad Ashraf’s story.

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🚫 Fake News You Almost Fell For

🔍 BOOM’s 🔗Sachin Baghel↗️ investigated the content shared by a pro-Congress Facebook page Nation TV, and found it to be a sustained effort at spreading disinformation around the Rajasthan assembly elections.'

🔍 Are 167 Muslim children born daily in government hospitals in Kerala, allegedly outnumbering those of other religions? At least social media claims so. Find out the truth in 🔗Nidhi Jacob’s↗️ fact-check.

🔍 India is among the top three regions sharing misinformation about the Israel-Palestine war, Arab fact checkers told BOOM’s 🔗Nivedita Niranjankumar↗️. Read the full conversation.

🅱️ Recommends

📖 This week's recommendation is: The Science of Fake News

This article deals with defining the problem of fake news and misinformation, detecting fake news in real time and the need of intervention within social media platforms to reduce the attention given to fake news.

Read More

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