Covid-19: Wikipedia’s SWASTHA project to help fight fake news

Team Udayavani, Apr 4, 2020, 10:17 AM IST

Wikipedia is currently working on a project called ‘SWASTHA’ in order stop the spread of fake and misleading news. The project limits pretend information circulation by providing info associated to the virus and its illness in Indic languages.

Abhishek Suryawanshi, Founder and Director of Wikipedia’s Project SWASTHA, said that the project was started last year with an aim to provide health information on Wikipedia on 10 different topics in 10 different languages of India. However, while the team was about to start its operations December, the coronavirus outbreak emerged, and the team shifted its interest towards the pandemic.

SWASTHA stands for Special Wikipedia Awareness for the Healthcare Affiliates. The project has 20 volunteers, 20 healthcare experts, and three universities registered. COVID-19 related articles on Wikipedia get over 100,000 views in Indian languages per day.

Wikipedia last month started providing Covid-19 information in nine Indian languages including Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Arabic, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu.

Wikipedia’s SWASTHA is working with the Indian National Health Authority and Ministry of Health.