It was a few days ago when BBC published a 100+ page research paper on ‘fake news’ in India. Their research was comprehensively debunked on multiple counts including shoddy methodology, questionable and politically motivated sources and sample size. We also wrote about how the BBC research drew terribly fallacious conclusions based on a skewed data set and hypothesis. Following the brouhaha, BBC had pulled down its research paper. The PDF now shows a 404 error.
BBC functionaries had asserted that the research paper would be uploaded again with a note on the questions that had been raised regarding its methodology. The paper was pulled down 30 hours ago and has not been uploaded yet.
While waiting for the fake news research paper on India to be uploaded again, we realised that BBC’s research on ‘fake news’ in Kenya and Nigeria had also been pulled down.
In their article titled ‘Nationalism a driving force behind fake news in India, research shows’, BBC included two reference links where one could click to read the full research report. One was for the India report, and the other, for the research report on Kenya and Nigeria.
When one clicks on that link that should ideally take on to the full research paper, it shows a 404 error.
When we reached out to Mr Trushar Barot, a functionary of BBC involved with this research paper, he said that both the research papers should be back up soon.
