Priyanka 'Saurabh'
Fake news is news, stories, or hoaxes that are deliberately created to give false information or deceive readers. Typically, these stories are created to either influence public opinion, advance political agendas, or create confusion and are often for the benefit of online publishers. Fake video of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots fueled communal sentiments.
Social media has disturbed politics and forced people to disconnect from their immediate surroundings. Our political discourse has declined because of social media, where "hot tech" and memes have replaced serious engagement. Misinformation and disinformation spread in the media is becoming a serious social challenge. This is creating a toxic environment on web portals and leading to street riots and lynchings.
In the age of the Internet (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter) this is a serious problem as rumors, morphed images, click-baits, inspiring stories, unverified information, and stories planted for different interests are easily spread among 350 million internet users in India. has been There are many examples of online rumors in which innocent people have been murdered. In some cases, ministers have deleted tweets after realizing the fake news shared earlier. Fake news has also been used to cheat illiterate people financially. Example- Chit fund schemes have created a web of frauds online through spam emails. Fake news has eroded people's confidence in social, print, and electronic media and affected the benefits of media. The current response to fake news mainly revolves around three aspects – denial, removal of fake news, and educating the public. It is rarely seen that fake news is dismissed by pointing out errors like malicious editing and misrepresentation. But now tech companies like Facebook and YouTube use algorithms to continuously remove fake news from their platforms. Also, WhatsApp has set a limit for forwarding messages, to limit the spread of fake news.
In such an environment, the government should take the initiative to appraise all sections of the public about the realities of this information war and develop a consensus to fight this undeclared war. Also, strict action should be taken against those who spread fake news. Italy, for example, has experimentally added 'detection of fake news to the school curriculum. India should also give serious emphasis on cyber security, internet education, and fake news education in the educational curriculum at all levels.
The news being spread using chatbots and other software should be automatically selected for a special screening. The government should prepare a draft on the issues of controlling fake news. The government should have an independent agency to verify the data being circulated on social and other media. The agency should be entrusted with the task of presenting actual facts and figures.
An ombudsman should institute fake news complaints and initiate immediate action. Social media websites should be made accountable for such activities so that it becomes their responsibility to better control the spread of fake news. Artificial intelligence techniques, especially machine learning and natural language processing, can be leveraged to tackle the problem of fake news.
Fake news affects the freedom of expression and informed choices of the citizens of the country, thereby hijacking democracy. It is therefore of utmost importance that there is a collective effort of all the stakeholders involved to tackle this menace in a comprehensive manner. The Press Council of India is a regulatory body that may warn, condemn or condemn the conduct of a newspaper, news agency, editor, or journalist or disapprove of the conduct of the editor or journalist in order to curb fake news in India. if it finds that the newspaper or news agency has violated journalistic ethics.
The News Broadcasters Association represents private television news and current affairs broadcasters. This body investigates complaints against electronic media. The Indian Broadcast Foundation looks into complaints against content broadcast by channels. The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council accepts complaints of objectionable TV content and fake news against TV broadcasters. Section 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and section 295 (injury or profanity to a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code can be invoked to protect against fake news.
According to section 66 of the Information Technology Act 2000, if any person, dishonestly or fraudulently, does any act referred to in section 43 (damage to the computer, computer system), he shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, Which can also be extended.
—The Hawk Features
