Prashant Kumar is a 24-year-old resident of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh who participated in FactShala in 2020 and has helped spread the tools and techniques he learned about to at least 500 other people. He has achieved this in collaboration with FactShala trainer Gaurav Sharma, a Meerutbased fact-checker, researcher, and journalist.
Prashant first attended face-to-face training in Dahula Gaon, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. There he learned about fact-checking websites and how the authenticity of a piece of information can be checked with a simple search on Google. Prashant supported Sharma to conduct further face-to-face training in Baghpat, with diverse groups comprising friends, relatives, networks of volunteers, school teachers, students, older people and community members. He helped to identify the trainees and encourage them to participate. Prashant is the National Youth Volunteer of Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) in Baghpat. This Kendra has many volunteers between the age of 15-29 years. As part of his efforts to curb the spread of misinformation, he works with 8 or 9 other NYK members to fact check unverified news or information in circulation on social media and messaging apps. They use the NYK WhatsApp group to raise awareness and distribute corrections amongst the 150 members.
in FactShala in 2020 and has helped spread the tools and techniques he learned about to at least 500 other people. He has achieved this in collaboration with FactShala trainer Gaurav Sharma, a Meerutbased fact-checker, researcher, and journalist.
