Alok lahad on Fake news and His channel “News for Indians in Spain”

NEWS FOR INDIANS IN SPAIN
Alok Lahad is a Businessman, Hispanist and Social worker of Indian Origen who has been living in Barcelona from last 23 years. He finished his master’s degree in Spanish from the world-renowned Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He did his further research from the same University in Contemporary Spanish Theatre. He has authored and co-authored three books. Two are bilingual collections of Spanish and Latin American Poetry and another is an aid book to teach Catalan to people of Indian Origen. He has been organizing Spanish Classes for immigrants voluntarily so that they integrate into their host society. He is the president of Asociació de Negocis Turistics the Catalunya and also runs a News Channel by the name of “News for Indians in Spain” which he hosts.

What inspired you to open this channel?

As you know I have been involved in Social work mainly with immigrants and people of South East Asia and India. I use to get a lot of calls and queries from the Indian diaspora who asked questions which I considered silly. Later I realized that most have no or little knowledge of Spanish or Catalan and they are unable to read or understand the information available to them through newspapers, webpages etc. So, their main source of information is videos made by anyone in their own language and these at times was incorrect. There is a lot of fake and incorrect information circulating in the social media specially Ticktoc, WhatsApp and Facebook. So instead of answering 20 phone calls I decided to make a video and put it on the web. The experiment was successful as it reached more people in the diaspora than I could imagine which inspired me to make more videos for Indians in Spain.

What’s your opinion on fake news?
As a seeker of truth, it pains me no end. I don’t know why would someone do it? If the sole purpose is to get hits on your social media account, it is harmful in the long run. It can get you the desired hits but soon people will desert you for a more serious and businesslike channel.

How do you think can one tackle fake news?
We get a lot of inquiries on the fake news being posted and we spend a lot of time trying to verify if the information provided is correct or incorrect only once, we are sure to do be publish it in our channel. The best method is to avoid believing anything and everything that is put on social media. If there is an official channel, then it is different. So, we try and put original links to the official pages. At times we get information which is not available on the webpages and thee is no way to find out if it is true, especially now where dues to the Corona Virus a lot of institutions are closed. But we follow up with the people involved and get the authentic information. My suggestion is going to the source and not to the viral messages or videos.

Is sharing fake news punishable act in Spain?
Unfortunately, there is a legal void in Spain in this issue because there is this concept of freedom of speech. So though sending fake posts is not punishable but knowingly spreading lies can have legal consequences. In India, it a punishable offence and anyone who forwards and pushes fake news is also responsible for its spread and the social ramification it can have. In India, you can even be jailed for it. I suggest people avoid this type of temptation and go to places which have to build their reputation through hard work like Catalunyaar and news channels like “News for Indians in Spain”.

Visit News for Indias in Spain YouTube Channel

And you can you also follow Alok Lahads exclusive videos on page Catalunyaar on Facebook

Hasta pronto

Wear mask and be Safe.