A post with a link goes viral claiming that the Ministry of Education is giving away 5,000,000 free laptops to students. The fact-checking department of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) has since announced that the message is fake and that such a scheme is not being offered by the government.
Sharing a screenshot of the viral post and in the caption via their fact-checking Twitter handle, PIB wrote: “A text message with a website link is circulating on social media claiming that @EduMinOfIndia is offering 5,000,000 free laptops to all students. ” The caption went on to read: “The scattered link is #Fake. The government does not implement such a scheme.”
A text message with a website link is circulating on social media claiming that @EduMinOfIndia offers 500,000 free laptops to all students #PIBFactCheck
▶️The distributed link is #Fake
▶️The government does not implement such a scheme pic.twitter.com/m8rGGXG7l9
— PIB fact check (@PIBFactCheck) July 11, 2022
The message also tells recipients to click on the link that reads “to check eligibility”. Apart from the fact that the message is fake, it can also be a trap for users to have their personal information phishing. The PIB Fact Check also warned internet users about such posts claiming free goodies.
It is not the first time such a message has circulated on social media. Last year, in August, the PIB Fact Check ran into yet another fake news. The message read: “The Department of Education has a distribution schedule for laptops to be distributed to families to support virtual learning.” The PIB also warned people not to share and further distribute such messages.
Such messages can create a bubble of information that can be harmful to the readers. One term that has become quite popular in the era of fake news spread is ‘WhatsApp University’. It is a pejorative term that highlights the issue of the spread of fake news via WhatsApp. Such messages create a division of opinion based on flimsy facts and one should avoid forwarding or heeding them.
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