Is The Govt Providing Free Internet to All Students For Online Classes? Here’s The Truth

A lot of misinformation and fake news has flooded social media ever since coronavirus hit India and not everything we read on the internet is true. Now, a post which claims the government is providing free internet to students has gone viral on messaging app WhatsApp. The post further says that 10GB internet data is being provided to every student in the country by the government so that they can study and appear for exams amid the pandemic. Here is what the post reads: “Due to Corona Virus Schools and colleges have been closed and because of this, the education of students has been affected, so the government is providing free internet (10GB per day) to all the students. So that students can complete their education and also give exams with the help of the internet and online classes (sic).” However, no such announcement has been made by the government and the claim is fake. Debunking the fake news, PIB in a tweet wrote, ”It is claimed in a #WhatsApp message that government is providing free internet to all the students so that they can give online exams and complete their education amid #COVID19 pandemic. #PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No such decision has been taken by the government.”

Claim: It is claimed in a #WhatsApp message that government is providing free internet to all the students so that they can give online exams and complete their education amid #COVID19 pandemic.#PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No such decision has been taken by government. pic.twitter.com/LYUCtLrVEW

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) October 6, 2020

The Press Information Bureau launched this fact-checking arm in December 2019, to curb misinformation and fake news prevalent on the internet. It claimed that its objective was “to identify misinformation related to government’s policies and schemes that are circulating on various social media platforms”.