Alt News India: Fact-checking and media education hidden in the shadows

Name

Alt News

Founded in

2017

Location

Ahmedabad and Kolkata, India

Employees

16

Methodology

Fact-checking, education, communication & media, focus on migration, health

Funding

Monthly fundraising campaigns

The Indian fact-checking organisation Alt News is not only fighting against disinformation, but also against a government that is increasingly restricting and infringing on press freedom. It has received widespread international recognition for its work.

Alt News is one of the first Indian non-profit fact-checking organisations active in their field. Software developer Patrik Sinha and journalist Mohammad Zubair founded Alt News in 2017 after years of privately monitoring and documenting the rapid growth of disinformation and hate speech online.

With the rise of the Hindu nationalist party BJP in the early 1990s, much of this content had a political context. Especially problematic was targeted discrimination against the Muslim minority, which in some cases led to violence and continues to this day. As the popularity and resulting relevance of social networks grew, so did the potential of damage that circulating disinformation and hate speech can cause.

In efforts to counteract this development, Sinha and Zubair established the fact-checking website. Since then, Alt News has been exposing false information, disinformation campaigns, and publicly condemning hate speech. “Alt News has made people aware of the fact that we have a huge problem as a country, because our information ecosystem is totally corrupted”, Sinha says about their work.

Caught between prison and the Nobel Peace Prize

In 2022, the organisation made global headlines when Sina and Zubair were listed by “Time Magazine” among the potential candidates to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Zubair was arrested by Indian police in June of the same year because of a meme that he had shared on Twitter four years prior, which allegedly hurt the religious feelings of Hindus. International journalism organisations, however, condemned the arrest as an attack on press freedom and described it as government retaliation for Alt News’ fact-checking work. It was not until after 23 days in prison that the authorities released Zubair.

However, intimidation attempts never stopped Alt News’ team from doing its work: Today, 16 employees work for the organisation, which is financed by monthly appeals for donations and is further active in the areas of news and education.

Fighting disinformation and the platforms on which it thrives

The news team takes care of fact-checks by monitoring social media platforms for hate speech and searching for circulating disinformation that Alt News users are further able to submit via their WhatsApp tipline or using the X hashtag #checkaltnews.

The organisation also strives to hold social media companies accountable for what happens on their platforms. “We inform people about what the platforms’ business models are and that they control the information ecosystem”, says Sinha. This control is a particularly big problem in India because the government led by Prime Mister and BJP leader Narendra Modi is increasingly influencing the platforms in its own interest.

In a series of articles released at the end of 2023, the Washington Post reported on how the Indian government is increasingly restricting press freedom and at the same time uses the companies behind them for their own purposes. According to the news outlet, X and Meta are going along with it as the government could otherwise deny them access to its 1.4 billion individual–strong market – an economic risk that the companies are not willing to take.

Media education for a more resilient society

With the country specific context in mind, it is understandable that Alt News has expanded its fact-checking activities to increasingly include educational work. “We live in a world where we have access to more information than ever before, but information can also be used as a weapon to manipulate our emotions for political purposes, fraud or hate speech.”, says Sinha. This is why Alt News aims to make society more resilient to such attempts of manipulation.

The second pillar of the organisation is therefore centred around its educational programme, which was launched in 2023 and has developed a media education curriculum aimed at 12- to 15-year-olds and is taught in schools. In this course, students learn how to consume and evaluate media critically, research sources, and learn more about the business models of platforms and media organisations.

However, when it comes to this effort, Alt News is also faced with heavy opposition and was targeted by police after a major newspaper had reported on the course. Since then, Alt News has endeavoured to draw as little attention as possible to its educational efforts. “We work in a very hostile political atmosphere and under constant legal attacks”, Sinha summarises.

How Alt News can serve as a role model

It is this quiet but vehement and methodical resistance to hostile government narratives that makes Alt News a role model for others: The organisation is driven by the belief that perseverance has a big impact. Whilst active in a country that has over 23 official languages and around five times as many unofficial ones, it is impossible for them to cover content in all languages – their work in the areas where they are able to achieve an impact serves an important role model for their peers.

Alt News thus serves as a great example of persistent resistance to intimidation as well as the belief that many small actions can make a big difference. Despite the threats and restrictions, their team fights against disinformation and for press freedom. Their determination and efforts to protect society from disinformation and its detrimental effects and their promotion of media literacy are an inspiration to others.