Kerala kids learning to spot fake WhatsApp messages, but it's a skill Indian adult WhatsApp users too need

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Earlier this month, two men-Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath-were lynched in Assam's Karbi Anglong district after being attacked by a crowd following rumours of being 'child lifters'. In a similar incident last week, a man named Kaluram Bachanram was beaten to death by a mob in Bengaluru after a WhatsApp message convinced the people that he was a child kidnaper.

The menace of fake news is spreading like a wild fire in India. The extent of this menace can be determined from the fact that BBC, which has been working to combat fake news via its initiative like BBC Reality Check, in its recent report has described the menace as deadly.

At a time when the nation is grappling with the menace of fake news, Kannur district administration has found a novel way of tackling this menace. The district administration has launched an initiative called "Satyamev Jayate" as a part of which students in the government-run schools in the district will be taught how to spot fake news on various social media platforms.

As a part of the initiative, which was launched earlier this month, the district administration first identified 150 teachers from various government schools for a one-day training session. In the next phase, these teachers will teach high school and higher secondary school students in their respective schools in the district how to identify fake news on WhatsApp.

"We all feel we do not play any role in spreading fake news, but in fact we do. We are promoting false information when we share a message on social media without verifying if it is true. We are propagating it when we do not point out in WhatsApp groups that a message posted there is false," Collector Mir Muhammed told The News Minute.