Recognized in International Mainstream Media –

 

StratCom 2018 by Atlantic Council hosted at House of Sweden in Washington DC on 2nd October 2018
“October 2nd will feature panels on: Beyond Europe: How Disinformation Campaigns Affect Democracies Globally”

Left to Right – 

Ambassador Eileen Donahoe, Executive Director, Global Digital Policy Incubator, Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University
Mr. Pankaj Jain, Founder, SM Hoax Slayer
Ms. Tai Nalon, Executive Director, Aos Fatos
Mr. Zahed Amanullah, Head of Networks and Outreach, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Dr. Maria Repnikova, Assistant Professor in Global Communications; Director of Center for Global Information Studies, Georgia State University

 


Washington Post – October 1, 2017

“That rumor about the cyclone has been going around for years,” said Pankaj Jain, founder of SMHoaxSlayer.com, a website that fact-checks circulating rumors on social media in India.
“Common sense is extinct,” Jain said. “People are ready to believe anything.”

 


The Guardian – July 20, 2018 –

Pankaj Jain, who runs Indian verification site SM Hoax Slayer dedicated to debunking fake news online, said that WhatsApp was “obviously” worse than Facebook for spreading misinformation. He said this was partly because the messaging app was so easy to use and had the widest reach among rural communities, and partly because data charges were so low.

His third reason relates to a fundamental privacy feature within the app. “People who create and spread fake news are aware they can’t be tracked so WhatsApp is their first choice for fake news.”

 


The Los Angeles Times – LA Times – July 11, 2017

Pankaj Jain, a Mumbai businessman whose SM Hoax Slayer website combats misinformation on social media, said that while “hoaxes are nothing new, technology has aggravated it.”

 


The New York Times – NYTimes – June 21, 2017

Pankaj Jain, who runs Hoax Slayer, a website that debunks fake viral stories on social media, found it to be a Mexican gang war murder video. “Almost 80 percent of the misinformation comes from right-wing groups and just spreads like wildfire,” Mr. Jain said.

 


BBC – July 24, 2017

Pankaj Jain, the man behind verification site SM Hoax slayer, knows this better than most. He told the BBC that his inspiration to bust hoaxes were the “stupid rumours” he kept receiving on WhatsApp.

I began by responding to messages to tell people what they were passing on was not true, and then decided to take it further.”

He came to prominence after becoming one of the first people to shoot down a viral news story which claimed that India’s new 2,000 rupee note was embedded with a “nano GPS chip” that allowed authorities to track it if it was taken outside the country.

 

Pankaj Jain featured on TED official website

Delivered 3 TEDx Talks on fake News, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Links are below –

 2017

 

Kota 2018 –

TEDx Gurgaon 2019

 

With Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey

 

Rajsthan Police appreciates our effort

10th Feb 2022, they suggested people to follow Fact checking websites with ‘SMHoaxSlayer’ on Top

 

 

Talking about Fake News and how to fact check at Mantralay, Mumbai

 

On panel in an event by Directorate General of Information and Public Relations Government of Maharashtra

 

 


South China Morning Post, China – April 23, 2018

Pankaj Jain, founder of SMHoaxslayer.com, said the rise of fake news presented challenges ahead of India’s 2019 general election and it was important to present the truth to the people.

“They need to be shown the truth in the way in which they consume [news] most like regional language channels and newspapers,” he said.

 


Al Jazeera, UAE – Dec 12, 2017

Pankaj Jain, founder of SMHoaxSlayer, feels the fake news machinery is not designed to serve the interests of just one political entity or ideology.

 

Nikkei, Japan May 08, 2018

Pankaj Jain, the founder of SM Hoax Slayer (SM stands for social media) is a businessman who says he is passionate about dispelling fake news. Jain said he gets close to three dozen queries a day about posts on WhatsApp and other social media, which he then analyzes.

 


Deutsche Welle Germany – DW – October 9, 2017

“I go through various algorithms to check sensitive content. It requires extensive online research and fact-checking to establish the source of false news,” Pankaj Jain of SM Hoax Slayer told DW from Mumbai.

 


NPR Radio, USA – July 17, 2018

FRAYER: Pankaj Jain runs the Hoax Slayer website, debunking fake news online – mermaid sightings, ghost cars and, increasingly in India, kidnapping videos. He’s traced some of the most incendiary footage to an unrelated incident in Guatemala, not here. With smartphones and Internet getting cheaper and more ubiquitous in India, Jain says online rumors are multiplying. Plus…

PANKAJ JAIN: Whenever the election comes, the fake news starts spreading a lot. So obviously it’s going to increase by 2019.

 


CNBC, USA – March 12, 2018

Given the reach that YouTube has in India, the country needs to consider regulating the content that flows on the platform, says Pankaj Jain, founder of SMHoaxSlayer, organization which debunks fake news.

 


The Observers, France – March 13, 2018

And that’s what Jain has been doing ever since, via his site Social Media Hoax Slayer (and via Facebook, Twitter and Signal). For him, it’s a labour of love: he runs a small business in Mumbai during the day, and then, once he’s tucked his kids into bed, he spends a few hours every night debunking fake viral claims. He says readers generally send him between 20 and 30 questions every day, asking about information they’ve seen online and which they suspect is fake. This can take the form of photos, videos, quotes – but what Jain has noticed is that on any given day, most of his readers point out the same story that’s gone viral.

 


The Strait Times, Singapore – October 3, 2017

“That rumour about the cyclone has been going around for years,” said Mr Pankaj Jain, founder of SMHoaxSlayer.com, a website that fact-checks rumours circulating on social media in India.

 


eNews Channel Africa – ENCA – June 27, 2018

“Everyone uses WhatsApp and it is the best platform for spreading fake news. Internet data is dirt cheap (to download or send) and everyone in India has access to smartphones,” Pankaj Jain from fact-checking organisation SMHoaxSlayer told AFP.

 


Dawn, Pakistan – November 1, 2017

SMSHoaxSlayer is run by Pankaj Jain who began replying in detail to spurious texts to help relatives and friends. A video he received claiming to show the beheading of Indian soldiers with chainsaws in Pakistan was found to be that of a Mexican gang war from 2011.

BBC – Beyond Fake News

 

Recognized in Indian Mainstream Media –

 

The Times of India – May 15, 2017

A week later it turned out that the video was shot in 2011 and the men were Spanish drug dealers. It was exposed by Mumbaibased businessman Pankaj Jain who spends his spare time in debunking fake news as SM Hoax Slayer. “It gives me satisfaction. I don’t want people to fall for a hoax,” he says.

 

AFP

Mid-Day, July 08, 2018

When in doubt, approach him
Pankaj Jain, 40, is a businessman who, for the last few years, has been spending almost three hours daily on searching the Internet, and debunking fake news floating around. Jain, who runs the Twitter handle @SMhoaxslayer (he also has a Facebook page and a website), says that the first such story he called out was in 2016, when a video was floating around of a “Hindu girl being burnt alive by Muslims”. The same video resurfaced in 2017 with the “Muslim girl being burnt alive by Hindus” narrative.

 

Mid-day, October 15, 2018

Slaying in Washington
That our country isn’t the only one pulling all stops to combat fake news is something Pankaj Jain (in pic), founder, Hoax Slayer, will attest to. The Mumbai man was recently invited to House of Sweden, Washington DC, to attend a panel discussion on the subject. Titled Beyond Europe: How Disinformation Campaigns Affect Democracies Globally , the session revolved around disinformation and misinformation. “In the US, they don’t call it fake news. Disinformation refers to false information spread deliberately to deceive. Misinformation is essentially a mistake,” he says, adding, “My takeaway though, was a workshop on deep fakes, that are deftly constructed fake videos.”

 

Facebook collaborated with Republic for featuring few people working for community – Jan 2018

‘Facebook presents One India’ is a series which showcases stories of ordinary people coming together to impact the lives of many for the better. It assesses how they encouraged and supported communities to find solutions, contain issues, and improve the lives of others.

In last few years, the Social Media having a wider reach has started polluting human minds by anti-social elements, wrong doers, pranksters etc. 
Pankaj Jain, a Mumbai businessman whose SM Hoax Slayer website combats misinformation on social media, knows this better than most. 

His inspiration to bust hoaxes were the “stupid rumours” he kept receiving on WhatsApp. On average, Pankaj Jain gets over 150 messages from people every day, enquiring about the news content they receive on social media platforms. 

 


The Globe Post – March 27, 2018

Pankaj Jain, the founder of fact-checking website SM Hoax Slayer, one of the few independent fact-checking organizations in India, said the problems caused by fake news has assumed frightening proportion. He pointed out that hoaxes circulated on WhatsApp have in a few instances led to mob violence. “A mob lynched six people in Singhbhum district of Jharkhand state in May 2017, believing them to be child abductors, following a rumor on WhatsApp,” Mr. Jain said.

 


The Week – August 19, 2017

Pankaj Jain, founder of SM Hoax Slayer, a website that calls out fake news circulated in mainstream and social media, says that he started Hoax Slayer as he was annoyed at the barrage of false news he received on WhatsApp from friends and relatives. But he points out that it is fear that drives them to forward these messages. “Most people spread such stories to create fear or advance their propaganda, but don’t realise the consequences that misinformation leads to.”

 


Hindustan Times – January 14, 2017

“People keep sharing information without really checking whether it is true or not. As long as it is something they like or something shocking they pass it on,” says Pankaj Jain, the Mumbai-based businessman who runs the page.

 


Phys.org – April 23, 2018

Pankaj Jain, founder of SMHoaxslayer.com, said the rise of fake news presented challenges ahead of India’s 2019 general election and it was important to present the truth to the people.

 


The Huffington Post – May 26, 2017

Pankaj Jain, a 39-year-old from Mumbai, who started the website Smhoaxslayer said in an interview, “I’m blessed with the sixth sense, that is, the common sense which is on the verge of extinction in country, thanks to people who forward or share stupid messages which defy science and common sense — like believing in a photoshopped image of god in the clouds.”

 


The Diplomat – April 09, 2018

Fake news is a bit of a misleading term, believes Pankaj Jain, one of India’s most active fake news slayers: “Fake news can mean many things – a mistake, intentional misleading, twisting a news story, or fabricating a complete lie.”

 


Outlook – July 10, 2018

Social Media Hoax Slayer (SMHS), started and run by Pankaj Jain

 


The Asian Age – April 5, 2018

Social Media Hoax Slayer (SMHS), started and run by Pankaj Jain

 

Daily News & Analysis – DNA – February 2, 2017

The fundamental thing lacking in individuals sending out such WhatsApp forwards is common sense, feels Mumbai resident Pankaj Jain. Jain was on the receiving end of several WhatsApp forwards, including one sent by a relative warning him not to drink Mango Frooti, a locally produced drink, because it contained the blood of HIV patients. “I would initially call out these hoax messages, but eventually realised that I needed everyone to know about the problems with fake news,” said Jain while speaking to DNA.

The Mumbai resident then started SM Hoax Slayer, a page on Facebook that tracks fake news that is circulated on Facebook,

 


India Today – January 2018

So I started a Facebook page, which eventually became SMHoaxSlayer.com.

 


The Citizen– May 25, 2018

In recent times, there have been vigilance groups and websites that are actively trying to counter these machineries. Pankaj Jain, the founder of Social Media Hoax-Slayer is one such person.

 


The Sunday Guardian Live – May 28, 2017

Angry over such fake news going viral, in August 2015, Pankaj Jain, a 39-year-old engineer from Mumbai, started smhoaxslayer.com, a website which aims to expose fake news.

 


MenXP – October 4, 2017

Pankaj Jain of Social Media Hoax Slayer are largely considered the gatekeepers of news on digital media. They have come forward to fill a void of verifiability over virality in an age when news channels have been given a reality TV makeover.

 


YourStory – April 1, 2017

You can do more than facepalm at these shams. You can become the ‘Social Media Hoax Slayer‘, like Pankaj Jain – the hero we do not deserve, but the one we need.

 

Do you think fake news and social media trolling can make or break political parties and change how voters look at them? Rupali Mehra asks SM Hoax Slayer founder Pankaj Jain, writer and activist Mahima Kukreja and BJP spokesperson Shaina NC on the fifth episode of Firstpost Conversations.

 

Pankaj Jain speaking at Google HQ, Singapore during Google News Labs APAC, 2017

 

Event “Young Thinkers’ Conference” organized by British Deputy High Commission at India’s School of Business at Mohali, Chandigarh

‘The Truth behind Fake News and how best to tackle it?’ at

 

 

Pankaj Jain speaking at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune –

Spreaking at US Consulate, Mumbai –

Whistling Woods International, Institute of Film, Communication & Creative Arts for degree course in Filmmaking, Acting, Animation, Music, Fashion, Media & Communication and Design.

 

 

At Technovanza 2018, VJTI College, Matunga

At Talk Journalism 2017, Jaipur

 

Pankaj Jain inaugurating and speaking at Annual event, National College, Bandra

At a Rajasthani Function In Mumbai

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