On Tuesday, Boom Live that claims to be India’s first ever independent organization to ‘fight misinformation’ accused a satire spreading website named ‘the Fauxy’ of sharing false information. The fact-check article written by Boom Live reporter Mohammed Kudrati also targeted several social media handles for taking the satire light-heartedly and trolling former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan for his previous remarks over the recession.
The saga began on September 2 when the satire content writing website named ‘The Fauxy’ published an article titled, “India will be cornered if it doesn’t get hit by the recession like rest of the world: Raghuram Rajan”. The article poked former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan who had been predicting a global economic downturn for over a decade.
#BOOMFactCheck | Several social media users have mocked Raghuram Rajan claiming that the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India said that India should be in a recession to show “inclusivity”. #FakeNews #RaghuramRajan https://t.co/vFX2VOYXya
— BOOM Live (@boomlive_in) September 6, 2022
The Fauxy based its witty content on McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels’ interview on September 2 in which he had said, “It is India‘s century, not India’s decade”. Sternfels in his interview also praised India for its economic growth and said that the country would be the world’s future expertise manufacturing unit with 20% of the global working population by 2047. The Fauxy humorously created Rajan’s response to this and indicated that the former RBI Governor would be still predicting India to be hit by a recession.
“Former Governor of RBI, Raghuram Rajan has said that India not getting hit by the recession like rest of the world will make India get cornered”, it quoted. The article also coined his response to add, “A small recession hitting India won’t impact its economy but will avoid India getting cornered”. Notably, Fauxy openly confesses that it is a ‘pure entertainment website’ and advises the readers to not confuse its articles as genuine and true.
However, Boom Live, which claims to fight misinformation ‘fact-checked‘ a satire website and alleged that it was spreading misinformation. To dig the ‘truth’ out of humor, the channel also contacted Rajan who currently is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. The former RBI governor obviously refused to have made any such comments published on the satirical website.
Also, the Boom Live on September 6 targeted several right-wing social media users for taking the article written by Fauxy light-heartedly. “Several right-wing social media users have taken The Fauxy’s article at face value and have further spread the misleading claim”, Boom Live quoted while it fact-checked a satirical content writing website.
Boom Live failed to understand the satire and called out the Fauxy for spreading ‘misinformation’. The so-called fact-checker also cited social media posts, not realising that they had been mocking Raghuram Rajan for his perennial recession predictions.
Here are some of the memes shared by the netizens to highlight how Rajan has been predicting a recession for years.
“India must get hit by a recession to show inclusivity“.
— manju🇮🇳 (@mk07_13) September 3, 2022
-Raghuram Rajan
If you haven’t laughed today, you may do so now 😜#EconomicExperts
https://t.co/d9r8RSLGrt
India’s GDP growing at 13% rate and #India has surpassed #UK to become 3rd largest economy of the world. #IndianEconomy
— Dhiren Patel (@DhirenP66827872) September 3, 2022
Raghuram Rajan after knowing this be like:- (Burnol) pic.twitter.com/NnlvMhtKcU
Mckinsey’s Global CEO- “It’s not India’s Decade, it’s India’s Century”.
— ParasjaincaV2 (@Parasjaincav2) September 2, 2022
Hearing this, Raghuram Rajan to Mckinsey- pic.twitter.com/Z2cu57qBND
No one:
— Varun Kumar Rana 🇮🇳 (@VarunKrRana) August 31, 2022
Raghuram Rajan waiting for economic crisis in India: pic.twitter.com/aHMpOYMSRQ
Mr Raghuram Rajan has not given up. Still patiently waiting for India’s downfall. pic.twitter.com/GocCvDD0Vf
— Asha Thirumagal 🇮🇳 (@thirumagalasha) September 2, 2022
Earlier in several instances, Rajan has repeatedly hinted that the country is at the risk of encountering recession. In the year 2019, he also cornered the PM Modi-led government and said that India was suffering from a ‘growth recession’ with signs of a deep malaise in the Indian economy that is being run through ‘extreme centralization of power’ in the Prime Minister’s Office and ‘powerless ministers’.
Notably, similar dull attempts were made by ‘fact-checker’ Alt News and New York Times, who had spent their time and energy fact-checking random meme material. Though satire articles and memes serve many purposes and functions, at a fundamental level, they serve as an expression of people’s opinions and humor. They are simple, clear, and explicit in their messages and are meant to be taken in a jovial manner. In the current case, the article written by Boom Live not only failed in discerning Fauxy’s satirical despite the website explicitly mentioning the same, but it also ended up ‘fact-checking’ it, alleging the website of spreading misinformation.
