It’s becoming increasingly hard to differentiate fake news from real ‘news’ in 2020. Our TV news channels have turned a tragic death into a months-long moral panic about ‘witches’, drugs and Bollywood. Social media is awash with COVID-19 conspiracies and fake ‘cures’, aided and abetted by pot-stirring politicians and bureaucrats. Troll farms are pushing out misinformation and increasingly ludicrous conspiracy theories at such a high rate that fact-checkers are constantly playing catch-up.

So the folks at youth media organisation Yuvaa have put together a song and music video to remind you of the importance of verifying information before you pass it on to your family Whatsapp groups.

Titled Oops! I Shared It Again, the parody of the Britney Spears classic features influencers Akash Banerjee, Gurmehar Kaur, Maanvi Gagroo, Nakuul Mehta, Shreya Dhanwanthary and Yahya Bootwala, alongside journalists Meghnad, Raghu Karnad and Shereen Bhan. They’ve all come together to remind us that the responsibility and onus of not sharing fake news lies not just on news channels and social media platforms, but on us as well.

Siddhanth Bhosle has composed the music on the track, which also features him on vocals alongside actor and indie musician Saba Azad. It was made to support the Share Verified campaign against fake news and misinformation.

Watch the music video below. And remember, verify before you hit that send button. Misinformation costs lives.