Indian American Impact, Meedan partner to launch tipline and chatbot to dispel mis- and disinformation

Desifacts, Indian American Impact Project’s program to combat mis- and disinformation, is expanding to include a WhatsApp tipline and chatbot. The expansion of the original Desifacts program, which first launched as a website in February following the organization’s six-figure investment in the program, will support submissions and questions related to questionable content online, as well as voter education resources. 

Mis- and disinformation submissions to the WhatsApp tipline can include multimedia content. It will also offer transcription services for videos and images in English, Hindi, and Bangla. Participants are encouraged to share and report any potential mis- or dis-information they find or receive online by sending a WhatsApp message to +1 202-240-8742. 

This new expansion of Desifacts is supported by Meedan, a global technology not-for-profit that builds software and programmatic initiatives to strengthen journalism, digital literacy and accessibility of information online and off. Meedan won a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to support the not-for-profit’s Co-Insights project. This NSF funding will support the launch of Desifacts’ new tipline and chatbot. 

To learn more about Desifacts and its new WhatsApp tipline and chatbot visit Desifacts.org/take-action/whatsapp-tipline. 

Neil Makhija, Executive Director of Indian American Impact Project, shared the following statement:  

 “Impact is pleased to partner with Meedan and their insightful Co-Insights project. Their research-driven, community-led approach offers Asian American communities an opportunity to organize against mis- and disinformation in a targeted and thoughtful way.  

 The South Asian community has long been underserved by interventions currently aimed at combating misinformation. The pervasive spread of mis- and dis-information in South Asian American communities, especially on end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, erodes trust in our democracy, stifles voter participation, and has tremendous consequences on health outcomes.  

 Impact is committed to building trust with our community and voting base, and will continue to partner with Co-Insights’ advanced software to build out our new WhatsApp platform, chatbot feature and translation services. As we scale up these efforts, we encourage our community to participate in the fight against this infodemic. Every submission and every report makes a difference in this fight.” 

Image courtesy of thesatimes

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