Untruth spiral

It is time citizens wised up to viral messages that exploit their fear and urgency

Cyberspace has made it easy for motivated narratives to masquerade as insight. Some invading your social media choose not just to raise doubts, but to also distort truths. They seem to get a perverse thrill in crafting and circulating falsehoods with deliberate intent.

Over the years, platforms like WhatsApp have seen numerous viral hoaxes. These include false warnings about mobile phones “exploding”, bogus health cures (like miracle COVID remedies), and fabricated crime scares such as child-kidnapping gangs that have even triggered real-world panic in parts of India. Come summer, and we›re sent fake ‘government alerts’ about extreme heat waves or El Niño (the periodic climate phenomenon in which unusually warm surface waters develop in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, disrupting global weather patterns).

Other common hoaxes include misinformation about currency changes (which happened during demonetisation), fake job offers, and misleading religious or political messages designed to provoke emotion and rapid sharing despite lacking any credible source. A recurring pattern in these messages is the use of urgency (“share immediately”), false attribution to authorities, and fear-mongering.

In the past week or so, as summer set in more strongly, many of us have read messages saying: “Dear friends, what we are experiencing now is not ordinary hot weather. It is the arrival of the danger of ‘El Niño’, which can silently take lives and separate our loved ones from us. This situation will become more serious as May approaches.”

The message goes on to explain what ‘El Niño’ is, why the situation is “very dangerous” (“even healthy people can die due to heat stroke”), how 11 am to 3 pm is the «most dangerous time». It tells us to get our children to avoid school sports events, to avoid black clothes, and spells out the symptoms of heat stroke. Finally, it tells us: ‘Don›t stay silent after reading this information. Share it with your family and friends.’ An online social media message becomes a “virus” when it spreads rapidly and widely through sharing and reposting across networks, much like an infectious disease.

This message might have some elements of truth, but it is significantly exaggerated and misleading in tone. It is also problematic as it overstates the danger (“can silently take lives and separate loved ones”) in a fear-inducing, alarmist way. It implies a direct and immediate deadly threat from El Niño itself, which is misleading. El Niño influences climate patterns; it does not directly “arrive” and kill people. On Tuesday, IMD issued a yellow alert for hot, humid weather in Goa.

Well-meaning, overstated or alarmist? What’s true and what›s fake in cyberspace? It can sometimes be hard to distinguish. And when people panic and are triggered into further sharing such messages, it adds more confusion than anything else.

Why do some deliberately do this? People spread fake, untrue or exaggerated messages online for a mix of motives: some seek attention, validation, or influence. They use sensational content to gain visibility or social approval. Others are driven by ideology or propaganda. Their goal is to shape opinions, polarise communities, or reinforce group identities. Yet others do it for financial gain through clicks, scams, or advertising. Many simply forward messages out of fear, anxiety, or misplaced helpfulness, without verifying. Add to this the culture of immediacy on platforms like WhatsApp, where emotionally charged content spreads quickly.

So: stop, think, and forward only when convinced, even if you believe you’re doing someone a favour. Rely on official sources, newspapers, or fact-check things yourself. Officials need to respond faster too.