Friends Sharing Fake News? Send Them This Paresh Rawal Meme
Why Paresh Rawal needs to do a bit of fact-checking before sharing news and quotes on social media.
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Actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal, who goes by the handle @SirPareshRawal on Twitter, is fast becoming every fake news platform’s poster boy. The man, who has over 306K followers on Twitter, doesn’t seem to think twice before sharing any news report and quote that fits his politics and worldview.
Which brings us to today’s meme:
At a time when the proliferation of fake news is being seen as a modern-day plague, Rawal is unapologetically spreading animosity and misinformation via social media.
On Monday, Rawal shared a fake quote attributed to former President APJ Abdul Kalam, which disses Pakistan for trying to get him on their side.
This is the third time that Rawal has shared a fake news or quote recently.
Earlier in May, the actor had tweeted a Facebook publisher’s fake news link which alleged “70 lakh Indian Army cannot defeat Azadi gang in Kashmir: Arundhati Roy gives statement to Pakistani newspaper!”
Arundhati’s “statement” proved to be another instance of manufactured fake news. While Rawal then went on to tweet that controversial comment about tying Arundhati Roy to an army jeep as a human shield, pseudo-nationalists were outraged and news channels debated about essentially what was a figment of someone’s imagination.
In June, Rawal again tweeted another fake news story by the infamous postcard.news a platform that has been proven time and again to be a mass producer of fake news.
The “report” stated that, “Indian media was perceived as the second-worst trusted organisation across the world according to a survey by the World Economic Survey”. This of course gave Rawal’s followers an excuse to abuse and troll the “usual suspects” amongst the English mainstream media.
What’s surprising (or not) is that the actor hasn’t deleted any of these tweets despite it being pointed out that they are using fake links.
Rawal’s Twitter bio boasts of him being a Padmashri and Parliamentarian of India, well it’s time he started acting like a responsible one.
So yeah, don’t be like Paresh Rawal. Instead, be sure of what you are sharing on social media. If you can’t find a way to authenticate a piece of news, perhaps you’re better off not sharing it. Also, if you realise that you have inadvertently shared fake news, do post a clarification and delete the earlier one.
Do your bit by sharing this meme and creating awareness about fake news and its propagators!
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)