Fake News: Meaning, Issues and Implications
Fake news refers to the fictitious articles / media that are deliberately circulated in the internet with the aim of deceiving the readers. The news creator earns a profit with every user clicking to view it. The visitors are given an impression that they are visiting a trusted source of news and in this way it is made viral over the internet to increase its dissemination. Other than having an impact on the news readers, it also has an impact on the election process, pushing the pattern to shift towards one side.
History of Fake News
The impact and cry over fake news is not a new phenomenon. It was used as old back as during the elections after the final war of the Roman Republic. It was used by Octavian to spread disinformation and win over Marc Anthony and then he later changed his name to create a flattering youthful image of himself.
Fake News in recent US Elections
During the speech as a Presidential candidate, Trump was often viewed as shouting out to reporters as being fake news. Immediately after this, there was a hue and cry in America about the influence of fake news in US Presidential elections of 2016 between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Later it began to be secretly used as a weapon by both the right wing and left wing politics claiming the use of fake news by the opponents.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation later investigated the matter and discovered that certain cyber attacks were carried out on the US which had source in Moscow. Some stolen information was collected thereafter and carefully disseminated in order to undermine the legitimacy of the political process of US. It was asserted that reference was taken from the past American elections through covert operations and then spread through the internet as far as possible. The aim was sow discord and the aid the winning of the Republican candidate Donald Trump. Some of the sources like the polling places and voter registration databases were declared as critical infrastructure. Not only Russia, but evidence of fake news which made headlines include ‘Hillary sold weapons to ISIS’, ‘Pope backs Trump’ etc. All these are suspected to have driven the poll towards Trump despite the hatred that he generated amongst Americans due to his comment on banning the entry of Muslims to the US or building a wall between Mexico and US.
However, the results of the influence of fake news on the election process are still unclear. There is no proper indication of cyber attack and changing of vote counts in the key states of US. Further, a study made by the Stanford and New York University indicates that the so called ‘fake news’ was not through conventional media and only spread through few social media websites which is not likely to have a significant impact on the audience who still depend on the conventional media sources for real news. It is also true that news on Facebook is often considered a menace than a truth as indicated by the study. So, there is no direct indication of fake news influence on elections, although the claim is still strong on this point.
Influence of Fake News on Indian Politics and Society
With the concept of fake news becoming a global phenomenon with the growth of social media, India has also not stayed far behind in this regard. One of the strongest evidences of fake news came up during the time of the demonetization drive. The concept of fitting a GPS chip on the Rs 2000 notes made big news until the RBI clarified officially through its press release that no such advanced features were used in the new currency notes. The most renowned newspaper the Times of India in the columns of Gautier had mentioned of an old trunk of papers in the past that spoke of a strong leader like Narendra Modi. Later an investigation was made on his research only to find that he backtracked certain videos which went viral in the social media. The video showed a Marwadi woman getting married to a Muslim man and then being beaten up for refusing to wear burqa. But the source of the video was found to be that of a woman being beaten up at Guatemala and had no links with India. This is a serious incident which has the potential of having a big influence on country politics. The investigator had emphasized that both underground (using informal channels to make a news viral mainly through the unregulated social media) and overground (through well-emphasized news channels) sources are in use in India to spread fake news which can trigger unrest. Another source identified is the Whatsapp wherein a video from Bangladesh was being circulated by radical right wing groups after a minor communal disturbance that occurred in Bihar. The list is so big that it cannot be wholly accounted for.
The main cause of such news in India is that the legal news organizations too are unaware of the manner of verification and reporting they are supposed to undertake especially with respect to the news in circulation in social media. They are so highly concerned with increasing their own ‘trending’ contents ahead of the others that they let the news goes unverified. The only way to combat this issue is to increase the commitment of the journalists through proper education and values. One of the most innovative ways suggested is to challenge the news spread through social media through an equal overflooding of true news through conventional media. This will be possible only if the journalists stick to their practices and avoid faking of news.
