Context: Recently, the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has come out with a manual for identifying ‘fake news’ and communally sensitive posts from its website to guide law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
Key Points

• The report, ‘Fake News & Disinformation: A Guide for LEAs – How to spot and investigate,’ was prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD).
• BPRD has removed the recently released guide for law enforcement agencies to identify ‘fake news’ from its website.
• This was done subsequent to objections to the inclusion of certain portals on an indicative list of websites that could be accessed for fact check.
• The Centre’s police think-tank has come out with a 40-page manual to help investigators identify fake news, visuals and texts aimed at spreading communal violence, hatred or panic among the people.
• The step-by-step guide has been prepared for police officers to curb misinformation spread by digital news, which has brought back and increased the usage of fake news or yellow journalism.
• The manual warned that messages or website links one receives may contain hoaxes or fake news.
• Investigators should look for spelling mistakes in such reports as well as whether the headline supports the visuals or captions.
• The manual warned that photos, audio recordings, and videos can be edited to mislead the recipient and the investigators should look at ‘trusted news sources’ to verify whether the story is being reported elsewhere.

Issues
Spotting fake news

• The guideline mentions several indicative signs that officials must look for to identify possible fake news.
• The officers should read beyond “outrageous” headlines designed to attract clicks and read the whole article. A possible case of fake news could be when headlines, visuals or captions do not support the content or when genuine contents or sources are impersonated with false or made-up sources.
• A search on the author of the article would also enable insights into the veracity of the news.
• The investigating officer must stay alert to clues such as language since such websites and links usually have spelling mistakes.

Cross-checking

• The officials should refer to trusted news sources to verify whether the story is being reported elsewhere. When a story is reported in multiple places, it is more likely to be true.
• The manual also gives an indicative list of websites that could be accessed for fact-checking.
• The guidelines ask police and other investigating agencies to use open domain tools for collecting more information on fake videos.
• Given the fact that because the open domain tools and websites are hosted on foreign servers/cloud systems, BPRD has cautioned that the Investigating officer may consider the case sensitivity before resorting to these tools since there is the risk of data leakage that may influence or mislead an investigation.

Purpose of this manual

• The extensive spread of fake news has the potential to gravely impact individuals as well as society at large.
• The extensive spread of fake news has the potential to gravely impact individuals, as well as the society at large and hence fake news detection in cyberspace, is an important issue for the law enforcement agencies.
• The step-by-step procedure laid in the guidelines will assist Law enforcement agencies in spotting and investigating fake news in a systematic manner. It will also help in the effective prosecution of offenders involved in such mischievous acts.
• Therefore, fake news detection in cyberspace has become an important issue for law enforcement agencies.

About  Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD)

• It was set up on 28 August 1970 in furtherance of the objective of the Government of India for the modernisation of police forces. It has evolved as a multifaceted, consultancy organisation. 
• At present it has 4 divisions – Research, Development, Training and Correctional Administration.
• Union Home Minister recently exhorted the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) to work towards imparting training in soft skills to all the policemen in the country.
• The Government of India formally established the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), under the Ministry of Home Affairs giving a new orientation to then existing Police Research and Advisory Council (1966).
• BPRD was to directly participate in police functions and suggest reforms.

Its primary objective was to modernize police force and

• To take direct and active interest in the issues
• To promote a speedy and systematic study of the police problems,
• To apply science and technology in the methods and techniques used by police.