Fake News: Story of Murdered Truth

September 27, 2019July 17, 2023 Tietler

Call it lies, fake news, or just simple bullshit – misinformation seems to flutter willfully around the modern world. “Troll Factory” floods the internet with toxic propaganda. The TRUTH can take heavy decades to establish. It seems that every day, new alternative facts are surfaced in the public domain.

Fake news is a new coined word used to refer fabricated and murdered news. We can encounter such type of news in traditional news, on social media or on websites. In fact, it has no basis but is presented in such a way that seems factually accurate.

To control fake news and viral posts on social media, there has been a long-running exercise in the country,

but till now all have failed. In last month, the Supreme Court had issued directions to the Government during the hearing of a case on this issue. The honorable Court has also asked the government to file an affidavit in the matter within three weeks and tell how long it will take to prepare the guidelines.

Fake News: What exactly is it?

Lots of news or articles or stories you read online especially in your social media feeds may appear to be true, often is not. Fake news is a type of news, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers. Usually, these news are created to either influence people’s views, push a political agenda or cause confusion and can often be a profitable business for online publishers. Fake news can deceive people by looking like trusted websites or using similar names and web addresses to reputable news organizations.

These are three elements of fake news; ‘Mistrust, misinformation, and manipulation’.

It is a yellow journalism or more precisely a propaganda that consists of series of disinformation that makes a wrong thinking & false mentality An Assumed Truth.

Alternative facts have replaced facts and have more feel and weight than evidence.

Fake News is the greatest threat to democracy. It can alter the decision and understanding of people to the political parties.

“falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after it”.

How is fake news controlled on social media in other countries?

Malaysia – Malaysia is one of the leading countries in the world that has enacted strict laws to prevent fake news. There is a provision of a fine of Rs. 85 lakh or six years in jail or both for spreading fake news in Malaysia.
Australia – Australia enacted anti-fake news law to stop fake news this year. Under this, a penalty of 10 percent of its annual turnover can be charged from the social media platform spreading fake news. More than this if the social media company fails to remove posts related to terrorism, murder, rape, and other serious nature crimes even then, action can be taken against him under the Anti Fake News Law.
France – France took anti-fake news steps after being accused of interfering with Russia in the 2017 presidential election. It gives rights to France’s Broadcasting Authority to shut down any channel or network that spreads fake news.
Russia – There is a law of strict punishment against any fake news or person who spreads false information against the state or against its image.
China – China has already banned many social media sites and Internet services such as Twitter, Google, and WhatsApp, etc. to stop fake news. China has thousands of cyber police personnel, who monitor social media posts. The cyber police monitor politically sensitive, fake news and inflammatory posts on social media. Censorship is also applicable on any content of the Internet here, Ex. content related to the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square in China.

Viral Today:

Complaint registered against Delhi CM for ‘spreading fake news’ on NRC

The Rise of Fake News

Regularly we got our news from trusted sources, journalists and media outlets that are required to follow strict codes of practice. but, the internet has opened a whole new way to publish, share and consume information and news with very little regulation and zero standards.

Media is no longer passively consumed – it’s created, shared, liked, commented, attacked and defended in different ways by millions of people.

When we log in or go online to a social network we are generally presented with news, articles, and content based on our searches online. This type of content tends to reflect our likes, views, and beliefs and therefore isolating us from differing views and opinions. This is often referred to as a filter bubble.

Is Facebook winning the fake news war?

Many people now get news from social media sites almost from Facebook and other sharing networks and so it can be difficult to tell whether stories are credible or not. Information overload to attract more people’s views and a lack of technical skills about how the internet works by people has also contributed to an increase in this. Facebook has played a big part in increasing the reach of these type of stories.

The internet and social media have made it very easy for anyone to publish content on a website, blog or social media profile and potentially reach large audiences. Nowadays so many people now getting news from social media sites, many content creators/publishers have used this to their advantage.

This news can be a profitable business, generating large sums of advertising revenue for publishers who create and publish stories that go viral. The more clicks a story gets, the more money online publishers get through advertising revenue and for many publishers, social media is an ideal platform to share content and drive web traffic.

Other ways are:

Clickbait: Clickbait stories with sensationalist headlines to grab attention and drive click-through to the publisher’s website, at the expense of truth. These stories are fabricated to gain more website visitors and increase advertising revenue for websites.

Propaganda: Articles or stories that are created to deliberately mislead audiences, promote a biased point of view or particular political cause or agenda.

What can we do about fake news?

The large amount of information available online and the rise in fake news highlights the need for critical thinking. Children need to develop critical thinking from an early age. This is a key skill for young people to develop as they enter into third level education and prepare themselves for the workplace.

Digital literacy and developing skills to critically evaluate information are essential skills for anyone navigating the internet and especially for young people.

Google and Facebook have announced new steps to tackle and control fake news. The introduction of reporting and flagging tools are some of the measures. BBC and Channel 4 have established fact-checking sites, these are welcome steps. In the last, you can different sites which are used to check factual authentication.

Fake news in Jammu and Kashmir?

Indian Government has abolished the status of a special state by ending Articles 370 and 35A from Jammu and Kashmir. Just before this, the government had completely stopped mobile and internet services in J&K.
The government feared that fake communication and inflammatory messages could spread in the valley if communication services were operational, which could threaten peacekeeping. Communication services were stagnating in the valley for about a month and then gradually.