This article has been written by Fakhra Tanaz Akhter and Ibtesam Rahaman of Amity Law college. The article talks about the harmful effects of fake news during COVID-19.

Introduction

The virus now named COVID-19, first reported in Wuhan city China, in early December 2019 linked to a market there in the city has spread to almost all the countries. As per reports the market has been closed since January 1st 2020.

Declared as global pandemic on 11th March 2020 by the World Health Organization, COVID-19 is being fought by almost 190 nations through different ways including compelling their citizens to remain at their places in order to bend down the curve of the virus resulting in increased usage of the Internet for work, study, entertainment and other activities.

In India, the first reported positive case for COVID-19 was of a student in Kerala, a returnee from Wuhan, China on 30th January 2020. Screening of commuters, only from China, was provisioned in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata Airport since 17th January 2020 after issuance of the Health Ministry’s first advisory and extended to seven airports since 21st January. The Health Ministry through a second advisory on 25th January through perceived more cases were recorded outside China advised against all non-essential transportation and concentrated on maintaining strict procedures only for commuters from China and the third Advisory dated 5th February provided for cancellation of all visas to commuters from China as well as travel to that country.

Despite 191 confirmed cases from 24 other countries beside China commuters from Singapore and Thailand were screened from 5th February and commuters from Japan, South Korea, Iran, and Italy were included for screening from 13th – 26th February until on 4th march screening for all started in all airports and seaports.

Though COVID-19 was declared a universal Health emergency on 30th January by WHO and Rahul Gandhi, an opposition leader had warned of the impending impact of the virus on 12th February the Health Ministry Officials on 13th March said “Coronavirus is not a health emergency and that there is no need to panic” albeit there were already 81 cases reported till that day and pandemic declared by WHO two days back.

To tackle the spread of the virus, India first tried the Janata curfew on 22nd March and the Prime Minister of India again declared on 24th March a national Lockdown for 21 days from midnight itself. On request of several Chief Ministers the lockdown was further extended till 3rd May, 2020 and again extended to 17th May 2020.

Deception is the key transmission of rumors. Spread of inaccurate information is wider and speediest in the nation than the virus itself. Believing hoax news is a dangerous disease the nation is suffering currently. Fake News are created to misinform the general public and to hide from them actual facts in order to influence their opinion or political thinking. Most of the mainstream media channels along with the social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc. and other online portals are playing as a source of spread for fake news.

The 13th March tweet by the Health ministry was followed by several events including gatherings at religious and other places took place which includes congregation at Nizamuddin (13-15th march) visit at SiddhiVinayak temple, Shani Shingnapur, Shirdi Sai Baba Mandir, Vaishnodevi mandir, Kashi Vishwanath Mandir, Buddheshwari mandir (all between 16th – 20th march), swearing in of Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan on 23rd march as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and shifting of Ram Lalla idol by the Chief Minister of UP Sri Yogi Adityanath at Ayodhya on 25th March, first day of the lockdown but only one event became the fodder for the hate mongering news channels and social media and a few people from a group was presented so as to perceive as the entire muslim community. 

The Congregation at Nizamuddin from 13th to 15th March attended by about 4000 delegates including those from Indonesia, Malaysia, other countries and from all over India was planned almost a year back. The Delhi government order prohibiting gathering of more than 200 people was not for religious gathering as the same was specifically declared in its order dated 16th March. After attending the delegates started leaving markaz and by 23rd only about 1500 were still stuck.

For the evacuation of those delegates the office bearer of the markaz approached the nearest police station as well as the SDM for permission to issue passes for vehicles arranged by them but did not receive any response while about 1800 pilgrims of Gujrat stuck in Haridwar were sent back from Rishikesh by 28 luxury buses of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation.

After the spread of COVID-19 a series of hoax news were shown by several acclaimed news channel to spread hatred against a community, some even not related to COVID-19 such as spitting by a criminal on policeman in a van shown as Tablighi member doing so at health workers, a fruit seller licking fruits to spread the disease.

A telecast by Zee News of Tablighi Jamaaat people pelting stones at health workers escorting them contradicted by Firozabad police and in another news claiming 11 people linked to the group testing positive in Arunachal Pradesh against the state government’s declaration of a single case for which the channel ran an apology citing human error.

Amish Devgan of News 18 retweeted news by ANI who falsely quoted DCP of Noida of quarantined persons of shanties of Sector 8, Noida as Tablighi people of Sector 5.

In clarification to some news the Belgaum police and AIIMS Raipur confirmed that the reported misbehavior against health workers and spitting were false and the Saharanpur police contradicting the report of Amar Ujala and Patrika tweeted that the open defecation by markaz people was fake.

The anchor of News Nation Deepka Chaurasia tried to link a murder case to Tablighi Jamaat which the Prayagraj police tweeted as false. He even referred to the Tablighi Jamaat as Talibani Jamaat in a live show and on being pointed out by one of  the panelist whether the same was intentional or by mistake he denied to have told so which proves that the anchors are confident of going escort free despite lying on a live show.

The gathering by labourers at Bandra station was linked to the muslim community by India TV and others. News regarding two muslims manufacturing duplicate hand sanitizer from Bangladesh was posted in social media as of India. 

In another case a guard who used to visit Tablighi Markaz Masjid to offer prayers was alleged to spread the virus to 3 people of a family of a posh locality and even an FIR lodged by Delhi Police who later tested negative. Whereas the pizza delivery boy testing positive and due to whom 72 families were quarantined did not make news for these news channels and hate-mongering social media people only because of his religion.

On April 4, Himachal Pradesh BJP president and on April, 9 former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis referred Tablighi Jamaat people as humans bombs while on April, 6 Member of Parliament Shobha Karandaje tweeted about the tablighis misbehaving, dancing and spitting around in quarantine wards which was denied by the district administration of Belagavi Karnataka and the hospital authorities.

The above mentioned fake news appear to have been created to divert the attention of the general public regarding the actual state of affairs so far as COVID-19 is concerned. The requirement of PPE KITs, ventilators and other corona fighting equipments, facilities available to those fighting the pandemics, test conducted on daily basis, testing kits requirement etc. are not news today and instead the fake news has given space to the new news of hatred against one particular community and as a result our fight against COVID-19 has taken backstage.

Outcome of fake news

Fake news results in tragic outcomes most times. We know how it creates misunderstanding, hatred and enmity among peoples. People are confused between true facts and rumors. Violence has also become another deadly outcome of hoax news.

In outer Delhi a Muslim man was almost beaten to death by villagers on the charge of spreading corona virus.

In Badarpur, Delhi a vegetable seller was first asked by a man for an ID card and in absence of the same his name was asked and on being told his name was Mohammed Saleem he was brutally beaten with a stick. The accused named Praveen Babbar was later arrested.

In Haldwani muslim fruit sellers were stopped from selling fruits and only hindu sellers were allowed. In some places muslim vendors are not allowed to enter some societies.

In a village in Bangalore a notice was found displayed that till the complete eradication of corona virus muslim vendors are not allowed to enter. In Arunachal Pradesh some muslim truck drivers were beaten.

In Maharashtra 39 persons were arrested up to 10th April for propagating fake news, rumours and hate speech related to Coronavirus. Since lockdown up to 10th April total of 161 cases were registered regarding fake news, rumours and hate speech regarding COVID-19.

Even the noble medical profession could not save itself from the effect of fake news as in Rajasthan and Jharkhand two pregnant muslim women lost their babies due to the Doctor’s attitude towards these ladies being Muslim, a hospital in Meerut putting an advertisement for muslim patients to come with corona negative test certificate and first time wards in a Gujarat Hospital were segregated for Hindus and Muslims and the order for doing so was reported to have come from higher-ups.

In a very interesting rather embarrassing case, the Hon’ble High Court of Chhattisgarhdirected the Chhattisgarh government to search for 52 people returning from Tablighi Jamaat Markaz at Nizamuddin. The said order was passed by the Hon’ble Court after hearing the petitioner’s Counsel only who informed the Hon’ble Court that out of the 159 returnee Tablighi people only 107 has been tested and the remaining 52 were still not tested which were all supposed to be Muslims.

The petitioner’s counsel provided a list of 159 people to the BBC news channel which showed108 were Hindus. The question is whether the detailed information was supplied to the Hon’ble Court.If yes, how did the Court not notice all the names and if not, how did the court believe that exactly159 people had returned from Nizamuddin Markaz.

If the Hon’ble Court erred in judging the intention of the petitioner one can assume how the mischievous people, hate- mongers and people/ organization spreading hatred among communities will use these news to their purpose.

The fake news gave rise to Islamophobia to such a level that those spreading hatred include doctors, film personalities, sport persons, advocates, officers at the highest level at state and central governments, and even the parliamentarians and some politicians as usual who did not care to verify facts before doing so.

The Islamophobes began active even outside India particularly in the Muslim countries like United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Oman etc. Taking note of the hatred being spread in their countries activists, scholars, lawyers, organization like Independent  Permanent Human Rights Commission of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, ministers and even the royals in these India- friendly countries have expressed their anger and have threatened to taking actions like moving the United Nations Human Rights Council at  Geneva, to condemning the vicious campaign maligning Muslims for spread of COVID-19 and has urged the Indian government to take steps to stop the growing tide and to protect the rights of its persecuted Muslim minority  as per its obligation under International Human Rights law. Besides these the Hindus (comprising the majority of Indian expatriates) have been threatened to be sent back to India and a few have lost their job there. These hate-mongers have been reminded of the billions of dollars they earn in these countries, principles of Mahatma Gandhi,and even boycott of Indian products and goods in case of persistence of brutal assault on muslims in India.

Jamal Bahrain, Secretary General of the Arab Parliamentary Network has asked for the intervention of the United Nations and the OIC to stop the violations committed against the Muslims in India.

Even Canada has started taking action and fired an expat from his job for his anti- muslim tweet.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has expressed concern about stigmatization and blaming of Muslims for the spread of COVID-19 and has placed India as a country for concern, previously done in 2004. This hatred has caught the attention of international media like Time Magazine, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, the Japan Times and many more as well who have reported and commented on the COVID-19 related Islamophobia in India.

Legal aspect

The part III of the Indian Constitution under article 19(1)(a) ensures freedom of Speech and Expression to every citizen with certain reasonable restrictions. The freedom of Press is not separately mentioned under the Indian Constitution as it is under the ambit of article 19(1)(a). The mainstream media has the right to exercise their freedom of speech and expression but the restrictions must be adhered. While exercising such rights it must not spread fake news that results in communal violence, defamation, immorality and violation of public order which are strictly prohibited by law.

The rules and regulations of IT Act, 2011 must be adhered by media operators. Even Facebook and Google have attempted to increase the range of fact checkers to avoid the spread of fake news. The outbreak of Covid-19 led to an outbreak of a series of hoax news by neglecting the laws which created havoc among the citizens and cultivated the seed of violence in the country. 

No obstruction should arise to the privacy of patients; their details are entrusted to medical practitioners and must be kept safe. This intends to follow the regulations of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 which was modified from the ‘Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act, 2018’, unsuccessful in protecting privacy in every Ministry and situation.

Regarding fake news spreading at this pandemic Section 54 of Disaster Management Act of 2005 is applicable dealing with reporting untrue or misleading warnings causing panic.

IT Act and IPC should be followed with the D.M.A to combat fake news that may violate fundamental rights of freedom of speech & expression and privacy.

Applying the provision of Section 505 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 many people have been convicted in the states although ineffective to decrease spread of fake news. Fake news outcome defamation and thus spreaders shall be punishable for this offence under section 499-500 of IPC. In spite of severe punishments like imprisonment and extortionate fines, the laws seem unenforceable against this crime. Although the officials and authorities are updating themselves with the cyber security cells and becoming techie, awareness is circumvent to combat such fake news.

Conclusion

The spread of fake news has resulted in communal violence, hindrance of right to privacy, exploitation of right to freedom of speech and expression, defamation of people and religion, Islamophobia. Spread of accurate information is necessary, it helps transmitting: more awareness, more justness, less chaos and less virus.

Legal principles should be followed strictly to prevent spread of such malice via libel or slander and to maintain order and check in media. 

The Parliament should enact specific laws to deal with this matter in order to sustain peace and harmony in the country. The existing statutes should be strictly executed. While enacting the laws the Parliament should ensure that the freedom to speech and expression of the press is not swindled in any way.

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