WhatsApp fake news: These ₹500 currency notes are not fake, govt clarifies
1 min read . Updated: 18 Dec 2019, 04:59 PM IST
Premium- A photo of two ₹500 notes with a message instructing how to recognise original currency notes from the counterfeit notes is going viral on WhatsApp
- Govt has busted the myth and found that both these notes are real and are acceptable currency
Is your ₹500 note fake? A photo of two ₹500 notes with a message instructing how to recognise original currency notes from the counterfeit notes is going viral on social media these days. According to the post, the note in which the green strip is close to Gandhiji is fake and the note in which the strip is in the middle of the note is a real.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Checking team has busted the myth and found that both these notes are real and are acceptable currency.
"Claim: Some images and TikTok videos doing the rounds on WhatsApp are claiming that ₹500 currency notes on which the green strip is closer to Mahatma Gandhi are fake.
Reality: Both these notes are acceptable currency," PIB tweeted.
PIB has created a fact checking unit in order to identify the fake news related to government and its policies circulating on various social media platforms. The fact check unit has officials from the PIB as well as employees hired on contract to monitor platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to flag news that is fake.
How does the PIB fact-checking team work
-If you have doubts about the authenticity of a WhatsApp forward tweet or a Facebook post, just forward it to the PIB
-You just need to email a snapshot to pibfactcheck@gmail.com
-You can also send an url to pibfactcheck@gmail.com
-The fact-check team will check whether the news is fake or true
-This fact-checking will be done only if the news is related to government departments/ministries or schemes.
Countering fake news has been high on government's agenda.
Counterfeiting of the newly-designed ₹500 notes shot up by 121 per cent in 2018-19 in comparison to the previous year, the RBI had earlier said, PTI reported.
