Rethinking Misinformation from the Ground Up: Lessons from Dharavi in the Age of AI

When we talk about misinformation, the global gaze often turns to low-income communities as if they're just waiting for digital literacy workshops. But after spending time listening in Dharavi—Asia’s largest informal settlement—I saw something else: everyday truth-checking in action.

I explored how people in Dharavi respond to viral WhatsApp rumors—things like riot alerts, Aadhaar deadlines, and miracle COVID cures—and whether GPT-4 (April 2025) gives different answers when caste or gender is quietly signaled. My pilot was small but revealing: most locals dismissed fake cash transfer alerts via ration shop gossip, and flagged riot posts as false while still forwarding them “just in case.” For them, forwarding wasn’t naivety—it was pragmatic signalling, a way to protect others even while doubting the source.

GPT-4, on the other hand, gave different responses depending on the prompt’s identity cue. It offered welfare links to a Dalit woman but hedged and softened replies to an upper-caste Mumbai male, revealing how even AI can mirror societal privilege—unless explicitly designed not to.

This isn’t full-scale research yet, but it’s an invitation. What if we stop treating misinformation as a literacy problem and start seeing it as a relational, socio-technical act? What if “forwarding” means care, not confusion?

For researchers, there’s space here to study misinformation as behavior—not just belief—and to build multilingual, caste-aware evaluation methods. For tech teams, it’s a chance to fine-tune models for identity equity and voice-first interfaces, especially for non-literate users. For media outlets, it’s a reminder: truth doesn’t trickle down—it circulates through trust.

Even Dharavi’s walking tour organizers could reframe their storytelling—not just showing “resilience” in sanitation or housing, but spotlighting how residents navigate digital doubt with layered, local strategies.

Because Dharavi doesn’t just consume media—it negotiates it. And maybe it’s time the rest of us caught up.