Problem of Fake News

Context

Internet and social media no doubt is playing tremendous job connecting people and helping them to share their thought. But recently during the elections in USA a new trend arose, creating fake news and circulating it which allegedly played role in victory of Mr. Trump. Question is – What is fake news and how can we tackle it?

Discussion

There are some other instances also. Pakistan’s defense minister threatened Israel to use nuclear weapons against them over the fake news that Israel will attack Pakistan with nuclear weapons if they sent their troops to fight in Syria. In India after the demonetization and introduction of 2000 rupees note it was widely circulated over social that it has GPS tracking chip which was fake.

Fake news is a deliberative creation of factually incorrect content to mislead people for some gains which may be political or financial. This trend is growing rapidly. A person having a Smartphone and an internet connection in today’s world is a potential content generator. With the presence of giant social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp fake news spreads like a fire. The fake news may not be real but their impacts are far reaching and real. A man in the USA fired his assault rifle in a restaurant over the fake news he read on social media that is involved in child trafficking. Fake news creates a great deal of confusion in general public, in a research done by Pew research center two third Americans felt that fake news confused them over current affairs related to elections.

This problem has got worldwide attention. Germany is considering to impose a fine of 500,000 Euros if Facebook shares a fake news. There have been talks of establishing an agency to tackle the fake news. The problem is that these agencies formed to identify fake news could be used to suppress opinion and free speech by corrupt governments. So the best will be if these social media sites start regulating themselves through rigorous internet editorials and improving advertisement standards. Facebook has started in some areas a survive through which users can flag a potential fake news which is a right step in this direction. In the meantime, a broad outline of what is constitute a fake news is needed to be defined.