Fake News Menace

  • Precisely, we don’t have a proper definition of what constitutes a fake news in our law books.
  • Generally, Fake news is perceived to be a false or misunderstood news which will mislead or create a sense of hatred or misunderstand about someone or something.

Current Scenario:

  • When it comes to who should take the responsibility of the crime the people blame the government of inadequate action but the government blame the social media platform for inaction and social media platform blames the people for not verifying before forwarding message or uploading fake content.
  • This Vicious cycle of blame game tends to be the current scenario.

Effects of Fake News:

  • It is Intentionally or un Intentionally created or forwarded by the people but it has serious consequences.
  • It is a threat to our fostering democracy and has led to mob violence in the name of free speech.
  • Political Parties use such fake news for their Note bank Politics.
  • The current scenario in Kashmir has everything to do with fake news and the rumour that there are GPS in Rs. 2000 has also dented the credibility of our government.
  • Breeding ground for Lynching.
  • Manipulating electoral process by hostile neighbour’s like in the cash of USA.
  • When we upload any content it goes to internet with Meta Data. The Meta data contains information regarding if, the device which uploads, etc.
  • This meta data is deleted by social media platform to reduce size of the image.

Way Ahead:

  • In social media platforms 99% of the content uploaded is forward message the 1% is the fresh content. So, not deleting meta data of the remaining fresh content and examining could help curb fake news.
  • Separate Servers and storage infrastructure to store meta data must be implemented.
  • A Separate Government initiative can work wonders in this and a National level body for managing complaints and giving Rating to social media and other websites.
  • Stringent Penal Provision for the perpetrators for causing violence or death.
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