- A young girl gives an update on social media of everything that happens in her life — from taking her mother to the doctor to her break-up story — and craves social media attention.
- Misinformation that went viral prompted hundreds of people to queue up outside banks in the hope of receiving money in their accounts from the government. They did not give it a thought but believed what they saw in a video.
One-minute reels made by young girls and boys spoke about how misinformation and fake news spreads, the negative impact of social media that has penetrated deep into society, gender-based violence and human rights violations.
US Consulate Calcutta, in partnership with Prayassam, an organisation based in Calcutta and NGO Amyaa from Arunachal Pradesh, hosted the screening of reels created by the participants of Community Youth Hub at the American Center on Monday.
The Community Youth Hub project started in September 2023 with eight participants from Arunachal Pradesh and 15 from Calcutta and addressed the absence
of knowledge and understanding of freedom of speech
and expression of the marginalised economically-challenged communities and the existing ecosystem of disinformation.
“Misinformation and disinformation has always been there...You are more aware of it now and we see it in a lot of places now because we have social media,” said Elizabeth Lee, director, American Center, while addressing young adults who made the reels.
Lee said that it is important that every generation learns about understanding the truth, its sources and understanding that everybody comes with a background and history that they bring to whatever the story is. “So that you can understand what you are being presented as a narrative and what you are presenting as your narrative, too,” she said.
Lee also said that “freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequence of speech.”
“Saying things that are true, saying things that are difficult does not mean you are free of the consequences of those statements,” she said.
The community hub started at the grassroots level whereby the youth leaders and content creators from marginalised communities voice their own freedom of speech and work to uphold democratic rights.
Workshops were held to up-skill the participants in creating reels to capture social issues existing in the local communities.
The participants learned how to shoot reels, write scripts and edit videos. More importantly, they learned how a single “video can impact community life.”
“Community Youth Hub is here to tackle different aspects of human rights and freedom of speech and tackle misinformation by the youth of Calcutta and Arunachal Pradesh,” said Manish Chowdhury from Prayassam and a member of the hub.
Chowdhury’s co-participant from Arunachal Pradesh said that the aim of the hub is to train youth to become the voice of the voiceless.
“The youth have a voice and various social media platforms to express themselves. The problem is how social media is being used... it is time we use social media in a positive way,” he said.