Karnataka elections not only witnessed an intense political battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, but also saw an unchecked flow of mis/disinformation on Twitter – even weeks after the results were announced. But what made it worse was Twitter boss Elon Musk's recent call to give priority to Twitter Blue accounts in conversations and search.
While it was predicted that the loss of true 'verification' from the platform would boost mis/disinformation, the rapidness and the scale of its engagement were unprecedented during the recently concluded elections. As a result, posts shared by several Twitter Blue subscribers targeting political leaders – and old and unrelated videos circulated with false communal spin and misleading contexts gained seemingly higher traction.
Tweets that got an average of 40-50,000 views until January are now been getting over a million views.
Through this article, we will highlight the spread of disinformation by Twitter Blue users around the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.
Sports Meets Politics Meets Satire(?)
On the day of the results, 13 May, a Twitter Blue subscriber named "Dr Nimo Yadav" shared a post on his account. It talked about an Instagram story purportedly uploaded by cricketer Virat Kohli in support of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The post is still available and has recorded around 27,00,000 views on the platform.
The screenshot was fabricated and was later fact-checked by several organisations, including The Quint's WebQoof team.
Other 'verified' users, such as Dr Gill and Sadaf Afreen, uploaded similar posts talking about Kohli's Instagram stories.
"Dr Nimo Yadav" runs a parody account and posts satirical content without any kind of warnings.
Further probing of the account revealed several posts that linked moments from the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the state Assembly election.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The point here is that even if the posts were uploaded as a joke, the amount of traction they received combined with tensions rising around elections, they could easily mislead people.
Targeting Congress Govt’s Promises
During their election campaign, the Congress party had promised 200 units of free electricity to all households. It was recently approved in the first cabinet meeting of the party after it formed its government.
Referring to it, Twitter Blue user Rishi Bagree, who has been called out several times for spreading disinformation online, shared a post claiming that residents attacked an electricity department official when he visited for a meter reading. Bagree further said that people refused to pay for electricity due to the guarantees offered by Congress.
The post had recorded more than 1.6 million views at the time of writing this report.
The Quint found that the man named Chandrashekar Hirematha belonged to the Koppal district of Karnataka. He attacked the official after he was asked to pay the pending electricity bill for six months.
The same post was also shared by other Twitter Blue users, namely – Surajit Dasgupta and Manisha Singh.
Unrelated Videos Shared With Misleading Claims After Congress’ Win
As the chatter about who the next chief minister was going to be was still on, Twitter was abuzz with communal and political misinformation. Several old and unrelated videos were shared claiming they were happening in Karnataka after Congress' win.
For example, a user named Sandy shared a distressing video of a man slaughtering a cow on a BJP flag as a recent incident from Karnataka. The video had recorded more than 43,000 views and was later deleted.
The Quint found the video dated back to 2022 and was from Manipur.
Another Twitter user named Vini shared an old video from Maharashtra claiming that several Muslim men were seen threatening a policeman in Karnataka.
The user mentioned in the post's caption that this is the condition of the state even before the CM has taken the oath.
The posts were shared to accuse the Congress of appeasement politics and to show that the minorities have been 'strengthened' after Congress' win in the state.
Fake Claims Around the Voting Day
A user named Manish Kumar Advocate shared a video claiming that people disguised in burqas and pelted stones at police personnel to defame the Muslim community. It garnered more than 2,04,000 views.
The Quint fact-checked the video and found that it dated back to August 2020, and the incident is from Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool. It showed the police catching men who were trying to transport alcohol.
Gujarat Congress' Chairman for the Scheduled Castes Department Hitendra Pithadiya shared a video, claiming that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were found in a BJP leader's car in Karnataka.
The video showed people breaking the EVMs and overturning the car. It recorded more than 2,85,000 views.
The incident was from Karnataka's Vijayapura district. Team WebQoof spoke to Vijayapura SP Anand Kumar, who confirmed that the viral claim was false. He said that people mistook that the EVMs were being illegally carried.
The archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
A Campaign From Before The Elections Began
Ahead of the voting day, Rishi Bagree shared a video of actor and politician Prakash Raj to claim that he has a "message for Karnataka voters." In the video, Raj can be seen asking people not to vote for the Congress.
The video recorded more than 4,93,000 views.
However, the video was old and showed Raj asking people not to vote for the party in the 2019 general elections. The fact that the video was old and unrelated to the Karnataka elections made the claim misleading.
On the flip side, several accounts associated with the Congress shared a video which showed people carrying placards that read 'No Vote to BJP'.
Congress national coordinator Deepak Khatri and overseas Congress social media coordinator Vijay Thottathil shared the video linking it to the elections. Both claims had a combined viewership of more than 7,36,000.
Like the other, this video also turned out to be old and was first shared in April 2021. It showed a campaign against the BJP ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021.
A Prediction Turned Right!
We had analysed the accounts of several users who were previously called out for spreading mis/disinformation. These users had received a blue checkmark following the rollout of Twitter Blue and have continued spreading disinformation and have gotten a bigger audience now.
While we highlighted the spread of disinformation by Twitter Blue users during the Karnataka elections in this story, the problem goes beyond it.
Recently, The Quint published a fact-check on an old video from a festival in Kerala being as the visuals of the recent factory blasts that happened in in West Bengal’s East Medinipur. The claim was shared by a Twitter user and had garnered more than 3,00,000 views.
Another Twitter Blue user falsely shared an old video of several men molesting two women as a recent incident from West Bengal. You can read our fact-check here.
Writing for The Quint in April, Internet Freedom Foundation's Policy Director Prateek Waghre had mentioned that while the idea of Twitter's blue check was not an endorsement from the platform, the ambiguity in which it was distributed before the Twitter Blue Subscription came into effect led people to believe that it was one.
And to worsen the situation, the "verified" check is not a real verification either as setting up a Twitter Blue only requires a confirmed phone number and no official ID.
With the loss of the "verification" process, the platform has witnessed a significant rise in the flow of fake news. This unchecked flow in mis/disinformation combined with important events such as upcoming state assembly and general elections, poses a huge problem.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
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