Protesting Farmers Counter Fake News Through Their IT Cell

Farmers IT cell head Baljeet Singh (pic courtesy www.facebook.com)

New Delhi: The protesting farmers believe that there is a ‘concerted effort’ to ‘malign’ their movement and show it in bad light.

To counter misinformation about their ongoing protest, farmer organizations have launched an IT cell.

The cell works round the clock, with 25 online and 35 offline volunteers monitoring discussions and posts about farmer protests which are fake.

The cell has created the handle ‘Kisan Ekta Morcha’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. Within two-three days, they reached out to lakhs of people.

“Many senior farmer leaders were having a discussion and we came to the conclusion that we need to tackle misinformation on the internet. There is a concerted effort to malign our movement and show it in a bad light,” said 30-year-old Baljeet Singh, head of the IT cell.

Baljeet and a few others are busy with their laptops at the Singhu border site, while most of the others work from home.

“Fake news is spreading faster than ever. Recently, images of Khalistani posters from a foreign country were photoshopped to make it appear like they were being used in our protests. Immediately, we put out a clarification exposing the lies. This is very important as the reach of these posts is high and they can derail the movement,” explained Baljeet.

News and information about the protests, posters and logos are shared on social media throughout the day. Members also discuss and issue counters to videos and posts which attempt to show protesters in a poor light.

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