ABOUT

The role of social media and WhatsApp in spreading fake news across India is undeniable. To raise awareness and offer a solution, Lava, launched #SendItBack, as a Republic Day campaign, across multiple social media platforms.

In true social media style, the unlikely hero of the campaign was an emoji! #SendItBack encouraged every mobile phone user to go back to the sender of any suspicious message, by answering forwards with a backward – the rarely used back emoji, present in every phone.

A 2-min digital film drawing from topical mob lynching cases sparked off by fake news, an educative contest urging netizens to locate the back emoji, posts on how to spot fake news, GIFs and Instagram engagement stories helped #SendItBack trend at No. 2 on Twitter and rank 3rd on Unmetric’s Facebook Engagement Meter.

#SendItBack even started appearing in WhatsApp groups. The one time we were happy to see a forward!