Fake news is a deliberate lie or a half-truth circulated with the intention to mislead or cause harm to a section of people. It is a type of yellow journalism that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via the traditional print, broadcasting news media, or via Internet-based social media. Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically, often with sensationalist, exaggerated, or patently false headlines that grab attention.

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Fake news problem in India:

• Social media in campaign:
  • used to promote electoral programme and encourage anti-liberal sentiments as seen in Trump campaign. They offer a quick way to convey one-sided information or opinion, without the option or capability to verify the authenticity of this information or to present the opposite opinion for the sake of balance.
• Fake news creating Bubble phenomenon
  • Users with matching political views exchange one-sided information and opinions that suit their own convictions, reinforcing them even further, even if those were based on false information.
• Social media distancing people
  • It deprives people of human contact and the accompanying intimacy and exchange of opinions, which could lead to changing a wrong impression or correcting an inaccurate belief.
• Evergreening of fake news websites
  • Tens of thousands of “fake news” websites have emerged, offering false information to an audience that is used to traditional media doing the fact-checking for it and that believes anything that appears on a presentable webpage.
• Igniting extremist sentiments
  • ‘Fake news’ perpetuates, previously locally found, extremist ideas and groups together dangerously minded people e.g. – Neo-Nazis in Germany, Separatists in Kashmir.

Reasons for rise of fake news:

It is an amalgamation of policy issue as well as lackadaisical approach of social media companies:

• The Centre has adopted a flawed approach in resolving the ongoing security crisis due to fake news being circulated on WhatsApp.
• It is unfair to put the onus on the social media platforms alone for providing a solution to the menace of fake news.
• Security requirements must also take into account the privacy rights of millions of genuine users.
• Data leaks at Facebook and Uber in the recent past have proven that the encryption has to be so high.
• Blocking mobile applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram on security grounds would be even more dangerous.
• Rather than to force a solution on technology providers alone, the Centre needs to address the consumer end as well and adopt a collaborative way to tackle the menace of fake news.

Challenges in curbing fake news:

• Messaging platforms act as mere conduits for encrypted information.
• They deny decrypting or intercepting messages sent through their platforms.
• Traceability would undermine end-to-end encryption, weaken consumer privacy and cybersecurity.
• Since WhatsApp users converse outside Indian boundaries, the storage of a foreign user’s data could come with its own jurisdiction issues.
• Asking a foreign company to establish an entity in India is only asking for greater control without clearly identifying the potential harm.
• WhatsApp’s recent decision to restrict forwarding of messages to five users may only have limited impact in curtailing rumours

Way forward:

• Platform companies have much to do to improve their content moderation and contain disinformation.
• Facebook has announced that it currently has over 500 full-time employees and at least 3,500 external contractors who focus on election work, on top of the 30,000 people across the company focused on safety and security issues.
• Coordinated attempts to amplify and spread misleading and false information sometimes seem to emanate from major political parties and activists who support them. This ought to stop, and if it does not, has to be continuously and critically covered by independent journalists to ensure that people are aware of what is going on.
• Indian news media has a lot of work to do if it wants to gain the trust of the Indian public. Many express high levels of trust in some individual brands, most notably major newspapers and some broadcasters. But many news media are not trusted.
• A better and more effective approach to limit the influence of hoaxes on WhatsApp and other platforms is to increase media literacy.
• The government should bring out a policy framework on the possible harm due to the internet messaging platforms to engage at a deeper level.
• Government of India could partner with local news groups to further educate citizens on how to identify real news from fake news.
• Imposing hefty fines, like in Germany the Social media companies face fines of up to €50m if they persistently fail to remove illegal content from their sites.