Skip to main content

It's high time we combat Fake News

With more than 56 crore internet users in India, rumours and misinformation spread across the nation like a wildfire. This misleading information in the form of fake videos, images , memes,  advertisements and messages is spread through various digital forms of communication and then through the word of mouth.
Even popular news channels become the victim and source of these fake news (Credit:Youtube)
A popular rumour that spread across the social media app Whatsapp back in 2016 was, that the new Rs.2000 note had a GPS tracker in it. Well it sounded kind of a joke to us, but many people believed that it was true. Also similar rumour that appeared was that the Rs 10 coins circulated in the market are fake, making auto-drivers and vegetable vendors to discontinue the exchange of currency.

Fake News Virus spreading faster than the Corona-Virus

When the whole world is fighting with the recent COVID-19 corona virus pandemic, there is another fight that governments across the globe is fighting with, i.e How to fight and stop the spreading fake news related to corona virus?
Amid the growing scare of corona-virus and the accompanying rumours a farmer in Karnataka buried alive around 6000 chickens to avoid spread of corona-virus disease. The Indian poultry industry reported a 50% slash in their chicken'sales due to false information being spread on social media.
There is no one who is unheard of the home remedies that have been circulated throughout Whatsapp and Facebook that claims to cure the corona virus disease. The Indian Government and the World Heath Organization has strictly advised people not to fall to such remedies and rather follow the health advisory guidelines released by them.

What makes such large population to be victim of such false information?

The eye catching headlines of  images, websites and videos catches the attention of an individual. The deceptive headlines makes it easier for us to believe and share even without self examining. Another thing is that these fake news are designed to affect a particular target audience. They may be people with certain religious beliefs, political ideology or may be belonging to a specific community. It is human tendency to accept something that supports our beliefs and hence without even confirming the accuracy of the fact, we accept that it is true.

Who are affected by these?

It is usually the elderly and the less educated groups of our society who are easily persuaded by these fake news. They are the biggest spreaders of fake news. The main reason why they are affected the most is the lack of digital literacy. Hence lack of digital literacy along with unconventional and conservative thinking makes them prone to such rumours and spreading more hoaxes.
Some true facts blended in this misinformation makes even more harder to distinguish between the false and the truth.

How to spot a fake news?

It is important for us to know what is right and what is wrong. A 2 minute fact checking through Google search can help you know what's right and what's wrong.
  • Validate the source: Check who is the providing you with this information. Consider the creator. Whether this news/link/message that is forwarded to you or the website that you are visiting is even genuine. Websites with domain .gov, .org, .edu are much reliable source of information. Read about the creator, whether he is even real, visit other social media to verify that he is even credible or not?
  • Read the news properly: Go through the piece of information carefully. Many of such news have spelling mistakes. Also check for dates of fake news, notices, or articles. Many times a news headline from an old event are re-posted to create rumors.
  • Think before you share: It is always a good practice to verify the information that you read. Hence before sharing it out, cross check. If you are not sure about the source and reliability of the information. Do not share and create havoc among others.
  • Do a CRAAP test : 
    • Currency: Check that the information circulated is most recent.
    • Relevance: Whether this information is imported to me?
    • Authority: What is the source of this information?
    • Accuracy: How correct this information is? Examine it. 
    • Purpose: Why this news has been circulated?

Internet is a double edged sword. While on one hand it has given voices to many campaigns and provided justice to many and on the other hand , fake news circulation have created rumours in the society and have lead to riots. So it is in our hands to use this weapon responsibly.

If you enjoyed this post and found this helpful, then do share it on Facebook, Whatsapp or Instagram.
Liked the article? Stay updated for more post by hitting the Subscribe button at the top.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saving the Unreserved - Reservation System

The joint entrance examination committee recently announced the jee main scores and ranks along with the announcement of JEE advance Cutoff marks. With a lot anticipation among children to get admissions in the top institutes, this year’s cut off was pretty low as compared to last year’s. While the general’s cut off dropped to 81 from 100 last year’s while it dropped to 49 from 70 ,and 32 from 52, and 27 from 48 for Scheduled Caste , Scheduled Tribe respectively. This year’s cut off brought happiness to students and their parents due to low cutoff. But this maybe an indicating warning about the upcoming problem. Many general category students may have been in good or better colleges if there were no reservations. As these students are exposed to this reservation system so  some of them extensively rely on this in upcoming opportunities in life due to lack of skills. Like seats in the colleges are reserved, 50% of the government jobs are reserved as well. So that means, if the
5 comments
Read more

India - My vision

India on 15th August 2016 marked its 69th independence day. A lot happened in these 7 decades, whether it be politics, people, sports, literature,  art, science and technology. Everything just got changed all through these years. But still India is not among the developed countries of the world. The gap between the rich and the poor became more wider. The education sector of India developed a lot, obtained a lot of recognition around the world, many Indians are leaders of prominent companies around the globe, but still India's Primary education and Secondary schooling has always been neglected. Here the main focus is to obtain a degree. Without degree a person cannot be recognized. For eg. If i have knowledge, and I do an invention, then everyone would just ask " Which degree or qualification do you have".Failing to do so, means you haven't achieved anything. NO degree, No invention. Who will give answer to them?  Who is responsible for their current situation?
3 comments
Read more

Digital Education - The need of the hour

Digital Education Learning and distributing education or information through electronic media like laptops, tabs, online is known is digital education. With a lot of people now using smartphone and laptops, now information can easily be circulated through internet. E-Newspapers are the most commonly used digital content. Why a need of digital literacy? With India aiming to become Digital India, Digital literacy among children, youth and adults is must. The numbers of internet users have increased a lot; hence more people can have access to digital content. The traditional education methods have not successfully reached to all the corners of rural India. There are still a large number of children in rural areas who are not able to access education. The literacy rate is very low in rural areas and some schools in the villages do not have proper books, space and even lack proper teachers. Hence to overcome this problem, the only sol
2 comments
Read more