It is ironic that of all the risks that nations and their peoples would face in the years to come, it is the risk of misinformation and disinformation which ranks highest according to the Global Risk Report 2024.
Ironic because this risk emanates from the great promises of the internet as a unique, equalising and democratising space where women could represent themselves, tell their own stories and participate in the public-political discourse, at a speed and scale unprecedented in human history. But that space rapidly turned hostile and is today the primary medium for misinformation, disinformation, mal-information, hate speech, harassment, and other problematic content and behaviour.
Despite a rapid rise in its threat perception, the discourse around mis/disinformation, both in media and academic texts, remains surprisingly narrow and overwhelmingly focused on electoral politics. Media platforms cover misinformation as specific events which are brief in scope and have limited shelf-life. Their focus remains largely limited to national and international events and fails to capture misinformation in local context. In particular, gendered mis/disinformation and its implications in rural and semi-urban areas are conspicuously absent from Indian media discourse.
Lived experiences
Moti Dewangan, 42, works on training women on how to navigate the internet at the Digital Empowerment Foundation at Raipur in Chhattisgarh. Several women like her are part of DEF’s project to help women start an internet information and services kiosk. They are called ‘Suchnapreneur’ by the DEF – a bilingual portmanteau term that translates to ‘info-preneur.’
Moti is busy at the information resource centre she runs when an elderly woman arrives with tears in her eyes. She requests Moti to check her mobile phone to find out why her old-age pension is discontinued. Moti runs a few checks and explains to her that no such thing has happened. “Somebody must have given you false information,” she tells her. It turned out that it was the woman’s grandchildren who had played a prank on her.
On another day, beneficiaries of the state government’s financial scheme for landless labourers, many of whom are women, gathered in large numbers at Moti’s office. They had heard the fake news that cash benefits transferred to their accounts must be withdrawn within 10 days, failing which they will be sent back. Moti explained to them that once cash is transferred to an account it cannot “go back” anywhere.
Why would anybody spread a rumour which serves no apparent purpose? Moti says, “It is impossible to know why fake news spreads and with what motive. It can spread as a joke or there can be motives like robbery and extortion of women or senior citizens who might withdraw cash in a panic mode.”
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.
Gender
The “men’s rights activists” may argue, as they often do whenever a gendered issue is raised, why feminists make it about women and gender, is fake news not fake for all? Do men not fall for the same scams and rumours?
It might be true that internet scams and rumours are not necessarily targeted at women alone, and that men fall victim too, but the impact is worse on women due to pre-existing conditions such as the digital gender gap and lack of digital literacy which put women and gender diverse people in disadvantaged positions. Akin to victim blaming in cases of sexual violence, women who get duped in an online scam face severe rebuke and at times violence at the hands of their family members. Their access to mobile phones might be restricted due to gender stereotypes like women are not intelligent, cannot handle finances, and are more prone to scams.
The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024 shows that Indian women’s access to mobile internet have been on the rise since 2017 but this suddenly reversed in 2021 which indicates that women had barely started gaining access to the digital public infrastructure when something untoward happened and they were relegated back to the private sphere. The report states that awareness about mobile technology is more or less the same among men and women, but equal awareness does not lead to equal adoption. Women fall behind due to factors like cost of the handset, lack of digital skills, and illiteracy, all of which have a greater impact on women. Further, even when they do adopt they cannot continue usage due to safety and security concerns, and that is where misinformation plays a role.
In a hypothetical situation, where a man and woman from similar social context both fall victim to same misinformation, the man is less likely to face violence and lose access to his mobile phone than the woman for the simple reason that women do not hold positions of power within the family and are not entitled to seek accountability from or hand out punishment to male members.
The self-inflicted psychological trauma of causing a financial loss is also far more severe in case of women. Sarita (name changed) is from Raipur and also works on training women on the mores of the internet. She says, “If I make a small mistake with the UPI payments my husband will shout at me saying I am not good with technology. Yet, when he loses money in online gambling, I cannot dare to raise my voice and reprimand him. Women are more vulnerable because they are more concerned about saving money. A woman has to manage the expenses and run the household. So, when she falls for a scam, she feels devastated and blames herself even though she is the victim here.”
Often, misinformation is specifically targeted at women. Nisha, a woman in her early thirties, who runs a beauty parlour in Delhi’s Palam area, says, “Some of my customers have fallen for the Flipkart scam in which some scammers post lucrative shopping deals for kitchen utensils. Women who want to save see the prospect of low-cost kitchen items as lucrative. Once they make an online payment to buy the items the scammer’s phone is switched off and the products never arrive.”
Earn-from-home job scams are also specifically targeted at women, taking advantage of the social mindset which discourages married women from working outside the home. Premlata Verma, 28, from Raipur , recounts how a woman responded to an Instagram post promising earnings of Rs 5,000-6,000 per month from home. After clicking the link, she was asked to fill out a form with details such as her PAN and Aadhar cards, address, and phone number. The scammers conducted a few days of online training on packaging work before requesting Rs 2,000 for raw materials, claiming that delivery was imminent. Urged to send the money quickly she complied. But the materials never arrived.
“Instagram account hacks, misuse of photos posted on Instagram, fake accounts created in their name posting vulgar photos, blackmailing women using fake accounts and so on are some of the other issues women and girls in my village face,” says Premlata.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.
Gendered misinformation and Dalit and Adivasi women
“The Adivasi women of Odisha’s Malkangiri district never had access to knowledge and information of any kind for a long time, says Jayanti Buruda, who is often identified as the first Adivasi journalist from Odisha.
Buruda says that for a long time, dominant groups kept tribal women in the dark on various issues. “But these days they have started using mobile internet especially because of the several government schemes and benefits which are only available on online mode. But they have a tremendous fear of internet because of things like mis/disinformation,” says Buruda.
Even social media posts which don’t contain false information often propagate a false idea of women that affects communities who are new to this. “The worst part is, Adivasi women do not have any mechanism to fact-check or clear their doubts. There is nobody they can talk to,” Buruda adds.
Body and health
Misinformation about women’s bodies and sexuality has existed throughout history. Menstruation taboos, such as the belief that menstruating women are impure, bring bad luck, or should avoid kitchens, temples, and certain foods, predate the internet. However, social media accelerates their spread and often reinforces or adapts them to local contexts with added layers of misinformation.
Actress Poonam Pandey had notably spread misinformation about her own death purportedly to spread awareness about cervical cancer which led to a social media debate on ethics of publicity campaigns. Debates aside, misinformation is a significant factor contributing to risks of disease perpetuation and instincts to self cure, among Indian women.
During the pandemic, British media reported that social media posts were circulated amongst British public falsely claiming that pregnant women should not get the anti-COVID 19 vaccine. Such misinformation are likely to have been circulated in India too.
Hindutva
Hindutva organisations have used misinformation and its various forms including disinformation or mal-information, for their political propaganda – which also have a gendered impact.
Anti-feminist narratives dismiss the “women question” and the need for a women’s movement by claiming that women in ancient India had equal rights and power. This notion relies on ancient texts and mythologies, which allow for multiple interpretations, but Hindutva thought presents them as historical facts.
In a bid to glorify the past, there have been efforts to deny the existence of Sati Pratha using misinformation, misinterpretation and selective reading of ancient texts and other sources.
Misogynist and anti-feminist narratives are also spread by men’s rights activists falsely exaggerating the number of purported false cases of rape or domestic violence filed by women.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Shaheen Bagh
The Shaheen Bagh protests in Delhi gained iconic and inspirational status in the history of people’s movement across the globe. The world media took notice and wrote extensively in praise of the brave Muslim women who took to the streets for the first time against the might of a Hindu majoritarian government.
On the other hand, one Facebook profile claimed that hundreds of condoms have been found dumped at the protest site and apparently more than thousand of women have got pregnant by “hooking up” at the protest site. It was also falsely claimed that women were being paid in cash and fed a plate of biryani in exchange of sitting in protest. Falsely attributed videos were spread to claim that a mother-daughter duo was selling drugs at the protest site. Alt News has extensive coverage of dozens of such gendered disinformation related to Shaheen Bagh.
The witch-hunt of Rhea Chakraborty
In the aftermath of the Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death hundreds upon hundreds of social media accounts as well as the mainstream media targeted Rhea Chakraborty with a barrage of misinformation and disinformation. She was called a gold digger, a murderer and a witch who apparently performed black magic on Sushant. Bengali women in general were labelled as witches who perform black magic to control men. Fake Twitter accounts were created impersonating her father and her lawyer which spread various falsehoods to muddy the narrative around the case. A random woman falsely claimed on TV that she had witnessed Rhea meeting Sushant the day before he died. The rumour spread like wildfire and had real life consequences for Rhea who faced criminal investigations and unjust incarceration.
Trolling
Gendered misinformation is also intertwined with the issue of trolling and harassment of women with strong political opinions. Fake social media posts, satirical blog articles, photoshopped images, deep fake and AI generated pornographic videos are some of the weaponised misinformation used by Hindutva trolls to silence women journalists, activists, academics, artists, and others who speak against the dominant ideology of Hindu nationalism.
Journalist Rana Ayyub faced extreme levels of orchestrated trolling, including death threats, doxxing, and deepfake-generated pornographic memes. The attacks have raised global concerns and drew widespread support. Ayyub is not the only journalist.
This writer too has been targeted by a series of such misinformation. A fake screenshot was posted by a prominent Hindutva influencer in which I supposedly said “eating beef enhances my beauty” with the inherent joke being I am not beautiful. I have never said any such thing but the fake screenshot from a parody account impersonating PTI, the news agency, went viral. What followed for months and years was that countless trolls took it as an opportunity to call me “ugly”. Photoshopped tweets supposedly posted by me were also circulated carrying sexual insinuations. In another case, a 12-year-old tweet made in support of political leader Mayawati was dug up and circulated with false interpretation.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The queer community
In 2021, the NCERT published a manual for teachers titled, ‘Inclusion of Transgender Children in School Education: Concerns and Roadmap’. It carried important recommendations such as use of gender-neutral toilets, uniform, and removal of gender binaries in school infrastructure and processes in order to help create inclusive classrooms. An RSS leader soon registered a complaint with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) against the manual calling it a “criminal conspiracy…to psychologically traumatise students under the name of gender sensitisation,” following which NCERT pulled down the manual from their website.
Labelling an attempt of trans-inclusion with something as damning as “criminal conspiracy” and “unnatural things” is another form of mis/disinformation. It is a deliberate and hateful lie about a community spread without any basis.
“During the recent marriage equality case in the Supreme Court, misinformation was being spread by no less than the union government’s top lawyers on the floor of the court. They argued against marriage equality on the grounds that it is a matter of concern for only a few urban elites. Thankfully, it was the Supreme Court who did the fact check by observing that many of the petitioners were actually from rural background,” says Kanav Sahgal, legal researcher and queer activist.
Queer activist Harish Iyer says, “Mis/disinformation about gay lives begins at their home. The 21st century kids are smart and inquisitive. They want to speak openly and learn about their sexuality but there is so much brainwashing by the parents that they grow up believing in falsehood and deny their sexuality and live in confusion and agony.”
When asked how misinformation impacts the queer community, activist Jeet, who runs a rights-based forum called, Yes We Exist, highlighted the countless cases of trans people being lynched on suspicion of child kidnapping and other WhatsApp rumours. A group of transgenders were assaulted by locals in Hyderabad. In Chennai’s Chromepet area, a 25-year-old trans-woman software engineer was stripped, tied to a pole and brutally beaten by a group of men; a 5o-year-old transgender beggar was beaten to death in Telangana’s Nizamabad area. In Hyderabad’s Chandrayangutta area, Chandraiah (50), his transgender son Ravi (25) and another male were seen begging when a mob of nearly 500 men attacked them, and Chandraiah was beaten to death.
In many of these cases, the trans person belonged to Dalit community making this a complex intersectional issue. Trans people in India also face rampant custodial rape which goes unnoticed for a variety of reasons one of them being the mis/disinformation regarding a trans person’s anatomy which gives the notion that they cannot possibly be raped or that they “enjoy” rape.
Queer activists further believe that the lack of authentic information about the lives of queer people is part of the misinformation problem. For example, among the many negative stereotypes is the notion that gay men cannot engage in monogamous relationships or that they are promiscuous. “Just because we do not form patriarchal family units it is assumed that we are incapable of love and commitment. The media and pop-culture add to this false notion which essentially demonises the community and puts us at risk of being mistrusted, misjudged and even mob-violence,” says queer artist Rahul (name changed).
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
State and civil society response
Tackling gendered misinformation is not a priority for policy makers and as such there is very little initiative from the government. To fill the gap, various civil society organisations have taken up the cause and are engaged in a number of projects and initiatives to fight misinformation.
As part of their project, Safeguarding Rural India Through Critical Digital Literacy, DEF has trained 30 rural women from four northern states who are on their path to further train 450 learners from their respective community creating a network of information entrepreneurs or Infopreneurs. These women help the rural community in digital access, availing various government benefits via online mode, and work with the community in fighting fake news.
The trainings use a variety of participatory methods like nukkad natak, role play, board games and a tool kit called DEF ka MIL Kit for the Multiverse of Digital Fallacies, which contains characters like the five online villains and five online heroes along with character masks.
Feminist organisation Point of View (POV) is also in the process of creating gamified learning methods to empower grassroots women in fighting gendered misinformation. “We are working on a project in collaboration with Chambal Media and it is designed specifically for the feminist, queer and semi-rural groups we work with,” says Prarthana Mitra, knowledge and communication manager at POV.
“We learnt from our experience that the key challenge to misinformation targeting women is that most of them are narrative based and cannot be countered by simple fact check. Thus, there is a need to broaden the definition of fake news to include both gendered aspects and also local and hyperlocal subjectivities,” Prarthana adds.
To tackle gendered misinformation, transnational civil society collaborations have been forged between US-based Meedan, Pakistan based Digital Rights Foundation and India-based news platforms The Quint and Chambal Media to undertake a research project to define, identify, and document gendered disinformation.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The study gathered, annotated and preserved a data set of 450 cases of online gendered disinformation based on which it provided a working definition. The study defines gendered misinformation as, “a manifestation of online gender-based violence that can also include offline activities and both relies on and promotes misogynistic, sexualized, false, and deceptive narratives influenced by a variety of intersectional social identities such as caste, religion, sect, and gender.”
However, it is noteworthy that a wide variety of gendered misinformation in the rural context goes beyond sexualisation and misogyny.
Gendered misinformation and disinformation cover a wide range of issues, including misogyny, gender-based violence, financial and job-related scams, and myths about women’s health, bodies, and morality. While many rely on the internet and digital tools, others predate the internet but now spread more rapidly through social media. Some can be addressed through fact-checking, knowledge distribution, and critical digital literacy, but others require deeper shifts in social and patriarchal attitudes.
The digital public space can be made safer for women not just by fighting misinformation or online misogyny but by closing the digital gender gap. It should be the endeavour of all stakeholders to encourage and enable women to actively participate and reclaim their space on the internet.
Dr Sanjukta Basu is an independent feminist journalist and research scholar. This article was produced as part of The Full Picture Campaign by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Our Voices, Our Futures (OVOF), which aims to address the pervasive issues of mis/disinformation, particularly its harmful effects on marginalised women, queer, and trans persons globally).
