The Maharashtra Cyber Police has partnered with startup Logically to detect fake news, logical fallacy, inaccuracies and bias ahead of the Assembly polls.

The startup is monitoring various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp for MCC (Model Code of Conduct) violations. These violations are then reported to Election Commission of India.

Logically has also exclusively dedicated 20 fact-checkers and verification experts, to form a collaborative reporting mechanism along with Maharashtra Cyber Police.

Lyric Jain, Founder and Promoter at Logically said: "While monitoring candidates, we realized that more than the candidates themselves, most of the amplification of problematic content is conducted by their followers, bots and bad actors such as foreign governments."

Like Logically, there are other verification platforms such as Boom Live.

During Lok Sabha elections, Logically detected 33,000 pieces of “fake news”. However, the most active days were either on the day of elections or on results day. The most popular type of content on these days, according to Logically was misinformation about polling booths being moved and dates being changed which could be a possible attempt at voter suppression. “So far misinformation regarding electronic voting machines (EVMs) as well as doctored videos on EVMs being tampered with are extremely popular, Jain added.

Published on October 18, 2019