A Thematic Analysis of Misinformation in India during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation gets a new momentum in India like many other countries, and the increasing social media penetration has a considerable contribution to it. Acknowledging misinformation’s considerable impacts on Indian society as well as public health, this study analyzes 228 pieces of popular misinformation prevalent in India from 1 February to 11 April 2020. A thematic analysis explores six major themes of misinformation: health, religious, political, crime, entertainment, and miscellaneous. Health misinformation directly impacts the country’s healthcare system and services, producing fake prescriptions, remedies, statistics, and predictions. The analysis further explores two types of religious misinformation: Misinformation based on spirituality and divinity that is less harmful, and misinformation based on religious politics and communalism that threatens social congruence. While Islamic misinformation is found more associated with spiritual misinformation that tries to champion Islam, Hindu misinformation is found more religiopolitical that mainly conveys vitriol against the Muslim minorities, promoting communal segregation and animosity. This study emphasizes a paradigm shift in the country’s communication infrastructure, lack of digital literacy, inadequate anti-misinformation initiatives, and political ambience for a better understanding of the misinformation situation in India during the pandemic. The article concludes with some of its limitations related to the data source, thematization of misinformation, and data collection period. This study, identifying a few knowledge-gaps, invites more research as well, to understand the contents, sources, impacts, and other necessary aspects of COVID-19 misinformation in India.

Keywords:

• COVID-19 misinformation
• fake news
• India
• public health
• thematic analysis

Notes

1 Gau rakshaks, cow vigilantes, or cow protectors are self-proclaimed groups to prevent cow theft and cow slaughter in different Indian states. These vigilantes are mostly Hindu nationalists. Although cow protection as a movement commenced in the nineteenth century, it regained its strength in India during the BJP-regime, more precisely after 2014. In recent times, cow vigilantes are involved in public lynching, targeting mainly the Indian Muslims. From 2010 to 2017, at least 63 cow vigilante attacks had occurred in India: the number of incidents was more than a hundred in 2015–2018, leaving 44 people dead.

2 The term communalism used here refers to the religious loyalties and (historical) religious contentions between the religious communities, mainly between Hindus and Muslims in the context of the Indian subcontinent.