Misinformation Combat Alliance to help curb spread of misinformation

New Delhi, Mar 23 (PTI) To curb the spread of misinformation through targeted interventions and activities, ten organisations have together launched the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA).

The organisations come from the fields of fact-checking, media, technology and public relations. They include Factly, Fact Crescendo, Newschecker, People Like Us Create (PLUC), Tattle, Vishvas New, Youth Ki Awaaz, Yuvaa and Vishvas News.

MCA, a cross-industry collaborative effort, is aimed at combatting and limiting the spread of misinformation through targeted interventions and activities, a release said on Wednesday.

Bharat Gupta, CEO of Jagran New Media, has been elected as President and Rajneil Rajnath Kamath, founder and Director of NC Media Networks Pvt Ltd, was elected as the Vice President of the alliance.

MCA will focus on media literacy, technology interventions, advocacy, community and policy.

"We're three months into 2022, and we've already witnessed the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, elections in 5 Indian states, and a war in Europe. As each of the events played out (and in some cases, continue to play out), there was an unfortunate yet predictable spike in misinformation. Even if we discount these outlier events, we continue to see misinformation in our daily lives," Gupta said.

Noting that it is not just politics and current affairs, he said, "We also witness misinformation around health, finance, government schemes, consumer products and even entertainment".

This has a profound impact, at both an individual and institutional level. Keeping this in mind, MCA has been formed, he added.

Kamath said membership to MCA is open to all and that the war against misinformation has to be a collective one. PTI RAM BAL BAL