All these technologies has come with some cost. That cost refers to the losses incurred due to spread of fake news. These losses can be of any type economic, social, political etc. as fake news causes sometimes riots, moblynching. To minimize these losses several measures need to be taken and it is the high time to take these measures otherwise situation is only going to worsen.
With the advent of the internet revolution, like other revolution it came up with certain challenges. Today we live in the era of social media where information crosses borders in the seconds. Thoughts can easily be spread across world effortlessly.
The first step is to be taken by the the government to curtail the source of fake news. It is obvious billions of people cannot be watched individually so here comes the role of platform provider. Social media like Facebook, Instagram, what’s app and many more must verify the facts circulated on their platform. However having profit motive they may not expend extra resources so here comes another role of government to regulate the platform of social media regarding fake news not the news of dissent against government as this is a Fundamental right. Currently India does not have any special laws regarding fake news. However there are some provisions in IT Act and in Indian Penal code through which fake news can be regulated and the accused can be punished. So India need robust law to control these social evils.
Apart from these measures, common people awareness is mandatory to be done by government. As a responsible citizen people should also verify the information before sharing as this may lead to save someone’s life also. However it is hard to achieve in India where majority of people are not well educated.
To fight with our new enemy, education on fake news is required. India should add these education in curriculum also. No doubt with the advent of AI technology it will be easy to regulate the fake news but till then we have to rely on our laws and self awareness.
amit kumar 