The loss-making social media platform, which had tied up with third-party firms to fight misinformation during the 2019 general elections, has seemingly decided not to renew their contracts ahead of the upcoming polls.
It was the general elections in 2019 that pushed ShareChat to partner with independent fact checkers. A news report had shown that the social media platform, which allows users to share content in local Indian languages, was plagued by misinformation. Most of it was political propaganda—fabricated quotes by politicians, doctored images of Bollywood celebrities and religious dog-whistling. Faced with a similar crisis, Facebook (now Meta) had started tying up with Indian fact checkers in 2018 to flag misleading content. Under media scrutiny, ShareChat adopted a similar approach.
Four years later, this strategy is starting to come undone. ShareChat seems to …
Ayush reported on the travails of the media and social media platforms in India at The Morning Context. He was previously at Newslaundry, where he reported on sectarian violence and politics from Northeast India, Kashmir and North India.
Writer
ayush@mailtmc.com
Delhi