“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
George Bernard Shaw
These are troubled times for every single human being around the globe. People are facing many problems including the unavailability of food and other essentials. Amidst these troubles, the medical personnel around the world are trying their level best to save the lives at hand and prevent the spread of the pandemic.
Despite all these people doing stuff to help their compatriots, there are those who find new ways to take advantage of the situation. One of the major members of this group is the ones who spread fake news. This is not the first and definitely will not be the last time they have done things that directly or indirectly harm others.
Fake news is false information about an event in order to portray an untrue impact or perception about something. It can be misinformation or disinformation published or disseminated under the guise of authentic news. The study conducted by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in India reveals that most of the fake news is transmitted on nationalism and cultural preservation produced by the right-wing political networks of the country. The prolonging strategy of fake news started with grabbing complete attention and evoking emotions to satisfy and impose a particular agenda.
Celebration of Deaths
This is one of the simplest and popular forms of fake news that have gone viral on the Internet. Most of us have seen these fake celebrity-death reports one time or another. Stars like Jackie Chan, Russell Crowe, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and many others have been reported dead by social media or the online news portals. Unfortunately, in the hurry to tweet condolences nobody cares to confirm the fact.
Another recent example is the novel coronavirus outbreak in 2019. There have been reports of fake cures and fake deaths across social media platforms. To identify and tackle such a phenomenon is a lengthy and slow strategy which requires mass cooperation.
Taking lives and spreading panic
WhatsApp has gained popularity among Indians in recent years. In India, the major reason for the popularity of WhatsApp is the adoption of 3G technology during 2010 and the entry of smartphones into the Indian market in the beginning of the same year. The platform has evolved into a fake news haven where the concept of gatekeeping is never practiced. To those who vouch for the implementation of libertarian theories, it is time to ask them what the solution is.
There have been numerous incidents of mob lynching across India where many lost lives due to WhatsApp rumors. Messages about kidnappers were spread with pictures of random people in some cases.
According to IndiaSpend, around 33 people were killed in 69 incidents of mob violence between January 2017 and July 2018 in India.
More often than not, the spread of fake news is at its worst during crisis situations. For example, Kerala, the southern state of India, had faced a devastating rain followed by flood leaving all 14 districts in red alert during the month of August. The State was also in the deluge of battling fake information spreading through online platforms regarding the flood situation. The Hindu reported that a fake account number in the name of Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund had been circulating in the social media. Several other cases of misleading information, creating panic, and preventing people from providing funds for distress relief, were spreading through social media platforms.
Isn’t there a solution?
Though the mainstream news outlets have tried their best to create awareness about fake news and its spread through social media, the job is not even partially done. Media literacy has never been a buzzword recently. The term for its serious tone is nothing more than asking people to fact-check the information they receive and share. Googling, for example, is a less tiring job than deciding which all groups it should be forwarded to. Whether it is a crisis or a medical emergency, get the facts correct, and make sure of its genuineness before sharing with others. Make sure you have a highly regarded source of information. If it is possible find more than one.
Moreover, science and technology on the other side are also contributing to help tackle fake news with the assistance of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence tools. The arrival of big data analytics burnished the capabilities of AI and ML by weighing facts and discovering sensational words.
However, machines can be faulty if their creators are too. As vigorous internet users, there is one thing that we always have to keep in mind; “If it’s on the internet then it may not be true”.