What makes these false statements believable is that they are powered by alternative facts.

These users are citing cases where Tablighis did not spit on healthcare officials or did not misbehave with them to discredit reports where they did all this and much more. If you look closely, there is a pattern to how real cases are being discredited and brushed under the carpet by amplifying false cases.

A section of the media is ignoring the real cases

Ideologically aligned fact-checking websites are selectively picking up only those claims that are similar to the real ones but are false

These websites are then ‘busting’ those claims

The fact-checks are being amplified by influencers to mislead their readers into believing that there are no real cases

Take a 3 April report by Time magazine on the Tablighis, headlined ‘It Was Already Dangerous to Be Muslim in India. Then Came the Coronavirus’.

“Coronavirus fears and religious tension were already at a fever pitch in India, and it didn’t take long for the two forces to intermingle. Videos falsely claiming to show members of the missionary group spitting on police and others quickly went viral on social media, exacerbating an already dangerous atmosphere for Muslims,” the report said, citing an AltNews report.

The AltNews report debunked a video of an under-trial in Mumbai spitting on the police in February, that is being shared these days with a false claim that he is a Tablighi.

It is to be noted that the under-trial, named Mohammad Sohal Shaukat Ali, indeed spat at the cops in the police van in February; reports said that was after the police did not allow him to eat home-cooked food brought by his family.

Note how the Time report, by choosing to mention only the false claim, is misleading the readers into believing that perhaps all such claims are false.

This is far from the truth. Here are a few of the many reports of Tablighis spitting at officials:

Now, let’s take a recent tweet by journalist Sagarika Ghose, who has 4 million followers on Twitter, which said, “No, Tablighi Jamat members are not wandering around naked in an isolation ward in hospital, it’s a fake video video from Pakistan”.