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How National Creators Award Winners Amplified BJP's Message

March 29, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

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Hello,

MyGov, a digital platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, spent 1.4 crore rupees on Meta ads for creators award in just a week. The Central Bureau of Communication spent over a crore on Google ads.

What do the content creators who won awards post about? Find out in this edition.

📣 Decoding Deepfakes & Elections

Deepfakes threaten elections. Decode tackles this with experts. Join us on 15 April at 6:30 pm at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, New Delhi for talks, demos & networking. Limited seats available.

Holi Reel Shot Inside Delhi Metro Rail Is Not A Deepfake

This went viral: A video of two women applying Holi colours on each other while performing a choreographed dance inside a packed Delhi metro.

The authorities react: “Prima facie, the authenticity of the shooting of this video inside the metro also seems doubtful as deepfake technology may have been used to create this content,” read Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) statement.

Media publishes it as is: Several news outlets including The Times Of India, The Indian Express, NDTV, WION published the DMRC statement questioning the authenticity of the viral video.

It’s not a deepfake!

First, commuters in the background can be seen staring at the two women, laughing at them with one woman also seen recording the whole act.
Second, we were able to trace the two women seen in the viral video: Preeti Morya and Vineeta.
Third, Preeti Morya, the woman seen in a saree, on the left in the video told us,"We filmed the video inside the Delhi metro. The recording took place near the Kashmere Gate metro station."

How National Creators Award Winners Amplified BJP's Message

🔖 The Awards: On 8 March, a month before the Lok Sabha Election, National Creators Awards were handed out to 23 creators in 20 categories by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The creators Decode’s Akshit Chawla spoke to expressed their willingness to collaborate with the government, but also expressed the importance of having control over their content.

But, there’s more: Our analysis found that over 60% of the winners posted content related to Hinduism, meeting BJP leaders or endorsing the ruling party's policies or ideology

Snake Oil Or Science? The Search For Alternative Medicine Is Peaking

🔖 Medicines❌ Home remedies✅ Ashlesha, a 27 year old woman from Pune was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 8-9 years old. Desperate to get rid of her insulin doses, she looked up for alternative practitioners who promised a complete cure for the incurable Type 1 diabetes.

“I was vulnerable enough to fall for it,” she told Decode’s Yusra Khan.

Press Freedom? When Photojournalists Faced Delhi Police Attack

🔖 Journalists pushed down by police: 32-year-old Salman Ali, a photojournalist with Hindustan Media, is grappling with the challenge of managing his tasks with just one arm. His other arm sustained a fracture when he was pushed down by the Delhi Police while covering the protest of AAP leaders amid the arrest of Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal.

The heat: “There were pushbacks happening as we were attempting to take photos. During this chaos, Arun Kumar of India Today was pushed by the police, and when he resisted their attempts to hinder his work, some cops started misbehaving with him. In the heated debate, they grabbed his throat, which was completely unacceptable,” Ali recounted while speaking to Kaisar Andrabi.

🚫 Fake News You Almost Fell For

🔍 A video purporting to show Jai Shri Ram slogans were raised during West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Garden Reach, where 12 people died after an under-construction building collapsed, is altered with a fake audio track. 🔗Swasti Chatterjee↗️ debunked the claim.

🔍 A video of a press conference by a group under the banner of ‘Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’ went viral claiming that the RSS led by Mohan Bhagwat has extended its support to the opposition I.N.D.I.A alliance. But did this really happen? Find out in 🔗Anmol Alphonso and Rohit Kumar’s↗️ fact-check.

🔍 Is Mumbai's “undersea” tunnel really under the sea? Find out in 🔗Nidhi Jacob’s↗️ fact-check.

🅱️ Recommends

📖 This week's recommendation is: How to Identify and Investigate AI Audio Deepfakes, a Major 2024 Election Threat by Rowan Philp.

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