The Times Group topped Alt News’s list of media outlets that shared misinformation in 2022, followed by Zee Media, the India Today Group, right-wing blog OpIndia and NDTV.
Based on metadata from 105 Alt News fact-checks published between January 1 and December 4 last year, Alt News documented 45 instances of misinformation across Times Group properties, namely Times Now, Times Now Navbharat, the Times of India, Economic Times, Navbharat Times and Mirror Now.
Zee Media was responsible for 32 instances of misinformation, India Today Group for 23, OpIndia for 18 and NDTV for 14.
Among specific instances of misinformation last year was claims that pro-Pakistan slogans were raised at a protest in Pune – the fact-checker noted that “prominent media outlets” like ANI, NDTV, the Hindu and Times of India all reported on it while Alt News’s investigation found the claims to be “completely false”.
When it came to political parties, the BJP and its leaders “shared the maximum amount of misinformation in 2022” – 48.1 percent of 124 Alt News fact-checks from last year. The Congress and its leaders were responsible for 33.8 percent of misinformation, according to the analysis.
Alt News also documented “influencers and verified Twitter accounts” that contributed to sharing misinformation on social media. Kreately Media and Sudarshan News’s Sagar Kumar each shared misinformation nine times, according to the analysis, followed by Tarek Fateh and DD News’s Ashok Srivastava with five instances each.
Newslaundry had reported on how social media campaigns were carefully orchestrated last year to vilify, troll and abuse Bollywood, and accounts like Kreately Media were at the forefront of these crusades. Read our in-depth report on why 2022 was the year of #BoycottBollywood.
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