How the Telangana government stops the spread of misinformation with WhatsApp

One of the biggest issues the Telangana government in India faced during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic was the fast spread of misinformation. In order to keep their citizens better informed, the Telangana government took to the channel where most of the false information was spread: WhatsApp. 

During the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world faced different challenges. In India, the spread of misinformation around the new virus was one of the biggest worries. According to a study by the University of Alberta, India was the country where most false information around the coronavirus was spread (in comparison to 138 other countries the study looked at). 

Most of these inaccurate news were spread through India’s favorite social media app, WhatsApp. That’s why the Telangana state government in India decided to stop the spread of misinformation and make sure their citizens were better informed during a time of crisis directly at its sources. 

In order to set up an easy and fast chatbot solution, the Telangana government partnered with Sinch. The professional all-in-one messaging platform helped them launch their WhatsApp chatbot promptly and without additional IT training. 

With the bot, the Telangana state government can keep its citizens constantly and accurately informed about the pandemic. 

To reach everyone in the best possible way, the chatbot not only runs on India’s favorite messaging app, WhatsApp, but is also available in English, in the official state language Telugu, as well as in Urdu language.

The Government of Telangana has established a dedicated Coronavirus helpline for citizens to receive accurate information on the pandemic. We are doing everything we can to keep our citizens safe in these challenging times and urge everyone to stay indoors and ensure they rely only on verified channels of information

Sri KT Rama Rao Minister for IT, Industries and MAUD

Citizens can ask via WhatsApp

With this service, the state sets a clear sign against the spread of misinformation and instead helps its citizens to quickly receive accurate information and updates.

As there are many uncertainties and questions around the Covid-19 pandemic and the symptoms of coronavirus, citizens of the State of Telangana have the possibility to chat with their government via WhatsApp and receive valuable information.

The chatbot starts with a simple preset message and opens an extensive menu, informing about the current status on Covid-19, lockdown measures by the Telangana State, more details about health facilities and isolation centers, typical coronavirus symptoms, and a lot more.

The service has just been launched, and information about it has already been retweeted many times. The citizens are happy to finally have a news source to trust and a service channel where they can ask their questions.

Overall, the WhatsApp chatbot helped the state government of Telangana achieve various goals: 

• offer citizens information 24/7
• answer questions about the pandemic
• clarify if information they found online was true or false

With this, the government was successfully able to stop the spread of misinformation. 

The automatic chat service that the Telangana government uses essentially consists of a bot system that can be implemented for WhatsApp and various other instant messaging systems.

This COVID-19 chatbot service for Telangana State Government was built by SB technologies, a local Hyderabad based software company and is powered by Sinch. 

Depending on how complex that chatbot requirements are, the Sinch platform allows companies, organizations, and governments to set up their own chatbots or get support to build them, and even upgrade the bot with more AI capabilities. 

Neither version is complicated to set up and can be a great start for automating the communication between your organization and your audience. 

Ready to take the next step? Read more about our chatbot solutions or get in touch with our team, and we’re happy to explain the best chatbot options for your company!

Author: Marinela Potor Marinela Potor is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Sinch. With a background in tech journalism, she specializes in messaging and AI.