June 26, 2018:
BBC has been working to combat issue of the fake news through initiatives such as 'BBC Reality Check', a Political Discourse fact-checking service.
Fake news spread instantaneously over the WhatsApp Chat Groups and Facebook is causing a firestorm in India and resulting in loss of lives, warns BBC in a new investigative report from Bangalore.
BBC is set to highlight issue in a report to be aired on BBC World News on Tuesday centred around death of Kaluram Bachanram, who was beaten to death by a mob in Bangalore after WhatsApp rumours convinced people that he was a child kidnapper.
BBC Report states that,"Kalu became a victim of India's fake news firestorm. Across India, Eight lives have been lost in this latest wave of fallacy defeating fact. Fake news is a challenge we all grapple with but here it is proving deadly".
It was launched during European Union (EU) Referendum in 2016 for both TV and Online and has now been made permanent and covers a wide range of issues.
Jim Egan, CEO of BBC Global News stated that,"Fake news is a big problem and it's vital for democracy that ordinary people are able to tell truth from fiction in the news they read, watch, and hear".
He further added that,"Trusted news will be as important as ever as we approach the elections in India next year, however, a recent BBC 'Value of News' study found that 83 per cent of Indian news consumers is concerned about fake news.
BBC News added that,"We experienced the reality of this problem recently when a fake survey on Karnataka polls circulated on WhatsApp with BBC News branding and we were forced to put out a statement making clear that it did not come from the BBC."
All these initiatives are part of BBC News' wider investment drive in India, creating 157 new jobs in the region and making Delhi BBC's Largest Bureau outside UK.
Delhi bureau will become a video, TV and digital content production hub for the South Asia region, with the closest technological specifications to the corporation's headquarters in London.
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