Background

The culture of forwarding unverified messages, hate speech and fake news has plagued India for a long time and has led to communal tension, civil unrest, and even loss of life. Mostly observed across all social media and instant messaging apps, this behaviour intensified during the Covid-19 lockdown, and forwards now also included unverified medical information which during a global pandemic could drastically risk public health and safety. TikTok India wanted to start a conversation about fake news and misinformation to emphasize to users the negative impact such a message can have on their own, their loved ones’, and even strangers’ lives. We weren’t looking for just a short-term change, we wanted to modify society’s message forwarding behaviour and raise its awareness about the ongoing pandemic of misinformation through our campaign - #MatKarForward, translated as Do Not Forward.

Describe the strategy

We launched the campaign with a video, casting Virat Kohli (Indian Cricket Team Captain), Ayushmaan Khuranna (Actor), Sara Ali Khan (Actress), and Kirti Sanon (Actress). Since Coronavirus was the most relevant topic, we baited audiences by talking about how the deadly virus spreads because of carelessness. Upon gaining their interest, we flipped the script to reveal that we’ve been drawing startling parallels between how harmful and contagious fake news can be, even more than the virus. This video on its own merely started the conversation. We educated the audiences constantly to actually modify their digital behaviour, through a series of posts across social media platforms. We wanted to ingrain one simple call to action in the minds of our audiences - if you receive a forward that (a) could harm someone, (b) that has misleading information from an unreliable source, or (c) you doubt it’s authenticity, then #MatKarForward

Describe the execution

We empowered the audience with tools by deploying our social networks to help the audiences identify potentially dangerous forwards, report threats, and most importantly - make verification second nature. Our posts and videos essentially became a resource library to educate oneself on how to stop the spread of misinformation. We also asked users to send in fake messages they spotted online and displayed them on our handles asking people to ‘Spot The Fake’, making it a UGC learning experience Having some of India’s biggest celebrities in the campaign helped us leverage their social handles to gain maximum traction. To have a national visibility and reach of this crucial message, we amplified the video on social media through Youtube masthead, influencer collaborations, and UGC posts. We also initiated a forward chain to help boost the organic circulation of the video through family groups.

List the results

70 Million+ Video Views on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram On the TikTok app, we received almost 3 Billion video views and 869.6K In-app creations Engagement of 13.9 Million+ and 110.1 Million+ Impressions across platforms We gained 55.5K followers on Instagram, and our film got 7K+ saves. The WhatsApp forward chain to boost the organic circulation of the video through family groups got us a reach of 10.08 Million+ Our efforts of trying to modify society’s forwarding behaviour and make verification second nature, started taking root as during the first week itself, we nearly got 40K flagged reports with respect to fake news or misinformation on the TikTok app. TikTok India received it’s highest positive brand sentiment on Day 1 of the campaign (56% Positive, 37% neutral) Our hashtag, #MatKarForward was being extensively used by official police handles, government organizations, and even Indian political parties.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

Communicating in the digital age is so constant, instant and effortless, that we forget that our messages can have real-life implications. While fake news might not be a problem unique to India, the social behaviour that keeps feeding its fire certainly is. Indians love to forward and share the most ridiculous forwards, without giving it an iota of thought. Messages from friends and family members are often assumed to be trustworthy, irrespective of the origin. This behaviour is seen among all age groups and class structures. However, not all of these forwards are inconsequential. Hidden among them are forwards of unverified facts, hate speech, and fake news, that are known to have caused communal riots, civic unrest, and even loss of lives. Research by the BBC has shown that nearly 72% of Indians struggled to distinguish real information from made-up stories.