The Author, Misha Bharti and Jeba Boktiar Mondal are 2nd Year students of BA.LLB (H) at Presidency University, Banglore.

ABSTRACT

The unlimited freedom made social media platforms are susceptible to misuse, misinformation, and thus, fake news. In the last few years, social media has turned out to be a massive player in shaping public discourse in a democratic space. Though there have been pressures from policymakers on service/platform providers, nothing concrete has built up towards accountability of the user or platform proprietors. In India, there has been a consistent increase of social media users and instances of the misuse of this medium. This paper seeks to examine how the propagation of fake news has disrupted the public sphere and possible policies that can be implemented to curb the plague of fake news. The relationship between various events of violence reported in India media and the role of fake news in instigating chaos are discussed in this paper. It also tries to review policies initiatives taken by various countries, especially in Europe and possible measures which India could take to restrict the flow of fake news.

Keywords: Facebook, fake news, India, media law, policy, social media, WhatsApp

INTRODUCTION

‘Fake news’ has become a global concern since the rise of unpleasant incidents that have challenged the users’ trust in the news, especially through social media. Lack of policy implementation or laws which could either curb fake news or hold the perpetrator accountable for their action have only made the situation complex and challenging. Responsible users have time and again raised the issue to review and amend the existing laws to meet the challenges of spreading of the fake news, but efforts by both policymakers and civil societies have not been enough to address this lacuna within the overpowering digital space. Media is now a web of propaganda, and there are more views than news The lack of a clear distinction, for internet users, between real and fake news is what further challenges source. India, being a massive market for WhatsApp application, has more than 200 million active users and this number is only increasing making it as one of the fastest-growing platforms. Though the term, ‘fake news,’ had been in usage since a century at least, it attained a renewed interest among media scholars and journalists in recent times, mainly owing to the sudden rise of hoaxes propagated via the internet. Information dissemination via the internet, according to scholarly works, could create two major impacts in the society; which are “Universal access to information” and “Selective exposure” .

A few years ago, ‘fake news’ was a rarely used term. Today, it has become one of the greatest threats to the existing system of democracy and a hot topic for the debaters. Shashank Atreya, a practicing lawyer, claims that fake news can be defined as ‘untrue and unverified news.’ ‘Untrue’ refers to false facts, whereas ‘unverified’ refers to where the facts might be true, but the numbers and characters are false. Though there is no one definition for fake news, what makes it a concern is that it allows subjective interpretations of the concept, thus making it difficult to study or allow any policy interventions. Fake news comprises of stories, news, and hoaxes created to misinform deliberately or deceive readers or to push a political agenda. In contemporary times, various media propagate fake news.

CURRENT SCENARIO OF THE FAKE NEWS IN INDIA

Fake news on social media has a massive impact on the opinions of people across the world. In the Indian context, the consequences of spreading fake news have been far from what one could contemplate. According to a report by Indo-Asian News Service (2018), A significant portion of such messages revolves around the basic idea of nationalism and nation-building. In scenarios like these, where the main idea behind spreading news is related to nationalism, the facts become less important for the users than the emotional desire to bolster their national identity.

Unlike other countries, the prime distributor of fake news in India is WhatsApp, but not other social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application, was acquired by the social media giant - Facebook. This social media platform allows its users to share information by forwarding it to other users in various groups and broadcast lists within the same platform which has led to widespread, unchecked distribution of information rarely vetted by users. It has not only misinformed the users on social media but also triggered violence and barbaric killings around the country.

In 2018, PanjuriKachari, a small village in Assam, witnessed one of the most gruesome cases of lynching. The smartphone footage which went viral, showed two blood-soaked men pleading for their lives, moments later they were dead. These two men who were from Guwahati, capital of the north-eastern state of Assam, were beaten to death by a crazed village mob wielding bamboo sticks, machetes, and rocks, as they were mistaken to be child kidnappers. The case was discussed in various media platform as to how rumors spread on Facebook and WhatsApp in India lead to the death of two people. Around 20 people were victims to cases of lynching in May and June 2018 alone, due to the viral news spread through Facebook and WhatsApp .At least 18 people were killed as a result of the violence fuelled by the rumors spread on WhatsApp in 2018 .

Outbursts of violence in Shillong due to communal differences between two groups; lynching of two men by an angry mob, who presumed the victims to be cattle thieves in Jharkhand; and death of two persons in Assam after being misunderstood as child lifters by a mob are some instances. These instances resulted in pushing the West Bengal government to work towards implementation of a law. The violence in these places was because of the spread of hatred and misinformation on social media. The proposed legislation of the new law has strict actions in place against individuals or organizations that are responsible for spreading hatred and fake news in society, and for disrupting harmony in a public sphere. Such strict actions include jail sentences to citizens for posting fake news, if such news causes fear or alarm in public.[1]

THE IMPACT OF FAKE NEWS

You comprehend at this point counterfeit news and different sorts of bogus data can take on various appearances. They can also have major impacts, because information shapes our world view: we make important decisions bases on information. The Internet is mainly driven by advertising. Websites with sensational headlines are very popular, which leads to advertising companies capitalising on the high traffic to the site. It was in this manner found that the designers of phony news sites and data could bring in cash through computerized publicizing that rewards high traffic to their sites. We from an idea about people or situation by obtaining information. The question remains how misinformation would then influence the public. The spreading of misinformation can cause confusion and unnecessary stress among the public. Fake news that is purposely created to mislead and to cause harm to the public is referred to as digital disinformation. Disinformation alludes to bogus data which is proposed to misdirect, particularly purposeful publicity gave by an administration association to an adversary power or the media..  It has been known to disrupt election processes, create disputes and hostility among the public. [2]

For example; Democratic impacts- Will I vote differently if I know the Pope endorses a politician’s candidacy? It is now know that false information played a major in the last American presidential election. This is one of the reasons why the media has spoken so much about the fake news phenomenon, because this is an important democratic issue. In short, the impacts are very real and we must avoid sharing fake news.

MANIPULATIVE FAKE NEWS ON THE RISE IN INDIA UNDER CURRENT SITUATION

Mumbai: A team of doctors, health workers and revenue officials who had gone to identify the family members of a 65-year-old man who died of COVID-19 were attacked in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on April 2, after fake videos claimed that healthy Muslims were being taken away and injected with the virus, reiterating the dangers and physical manifestations of misinformation.

A study on misinformation in India by scholars from the University of Michigan, released on April 18, 2020, has shown a rise in the number of debunked stories, particularly after the announcement of janta curfew by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 22, 2020, and the countrywide lockdown two days later, to contain the spread of COVID-19.  From just two in the third week of January 2020, the instances of debunked misinformation rose to 60 by the first week of April 2020, according to the study. Though fake stories around a cure for COVID-19 lessened in this period, false claims that affected people emotionally increased, the study found. The study used 243 unique instances of misinformation from an archive maintained by Tattle Civic Technology (a Delhi-based news project that aims to make accurate information more accessible to mobile-first users). The archive represents all the stories that have been debunked by six fact-checkers--AltNews, BOOMlive, Factly, IndiaToday Fact Check, Quint Webqoof, and NewsMobile Fact Checker--certified by International Fact-Checkers Network (IFCN) between January 23 and April 12, 2020.

The momentum of misinformation was already building up before PM Modi’s announcement of the janta curfew, but there was a consistent rise in the number of debunked fake news, following the third week of March 2020, the study found.The misinformation that was circulating on various social-media apps, as found by the study, was classified into seven categories--culture, government, doctored statistics, etc. About 62 fake stories were related to culture, defined as messages targeting a particular socio-religious, ethnic group, followed by 54 instances of fake news around government announcements and advisories, according to the study.

FAKE NEWS AND CHAOS

With the largest Whatsapp market in the world, and a place where users forward more content than anywhere else, India has a unique challenge while tackling the issue of fake news through social media applications like WhatsApp. Concerns have been raised in India regarding the liability of the WhatsApp group administrators, citing instances where the administrators of WhatsApp groups were arrested. In a joint order issued by District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police of Varanasi (2017), stated that an FIR could be filed against the group administrators if any factually incorrect, rumor or misleading information was circulated on a social media group. The response from State Cyber Crime of Maharashtra (2018) mentioned the challenge police faced in terms of keeping a watch on WhatsApp content since the platform is end-to-end encrypted. Holding WhatsApp group administrators liable for a crime done by another person is unconstitutional and a plain misuse of criminal law. Circulating a mysterious message intended to create ill-will or enmity is a cognizable and non-bailable offense under Sec. 505 of the Indian Penal Code (Singh, 2018). Holding group admins liable for failing to regulate fake news and hate speech by deleting such posts from WhatsApp is impractical since there are other legal implications. If the admin deletes such content, it would mean destroying evidence, which is punishable under Sec. 204 of IPC (Alexander, 2018).

In addition to these measures, a Delhi High Court judgment clarified that holding administrators responsible for content someone else had posted was illogical. In the judgment, the court said that “to make an administrator of an online platform liable for defamation would be like making the manufacturer of the newsprint on which defamatory statements are published liable for defamation” (Ashish Bhalla vs. Suresh Chaudhary,& Others, 2016).

ROLE OF INVESTIGATING AGENCIES, POLICE OFFICERS AND CITIZENS

One of the most underrated steps towards forming policies to curb fake news is the role played by the citizens. They form a significant chunk of the audience who are susceptible to misinformation and fake news. Investigating agencies and Police also can complement and enhance the role played by the civil society in controlling the spreading of fake news. In a world dominated by social media applications like WhatsApp, a message forwarding capability is a crucial feature. While some messages might be neutrally providing information, others can be harmful. When users exploit this feature of message forwarding haphazardly to forward a message without realizing its implications, it leads to viral forwarding. A typical viral forward that incites incidents of violence in the form of mob lynching often contains harmful, and often untrue, information that can mislead the reader.

In March 2018, a district in the Telangana state of India, named Jogulamba Gadwal, fell prey to viral forwards on WhatsApp. These forwards carried fake photographs of villagers of that district being depicted as organ harvesters and child kidnappers. As part of these forwards, many videos were circulated to advise the villagers to hide at sundown. The terrified villagers imposed curfews, and as a result, streets fell silent after dark. As the village started falling into a frenzy, several innocents suspected of being abductors were mobbed and assaulted. Amid all the chaotic occurrences, police approached the villagers with a method that could cater to bringing effective awareness in them. Since the people, being dealt with, were digitally illiterate, adoption of traditional methods appeared to be the most sensible option in bring awareness about something as modern as WhatsApp and social media. The localized problem was countered by the police using ‘Janapadam' which translates to people's path. As a part of this move, police started educating the villagers about misinformation. By incorporating the art of folklore, an immediate connection was established with the local people. This form of folklore involved storytelling with the local people performing short skits, usually belonging to lower communities. These skits typically featured one man and two women who would sit together and narrate a story which would end with a message promoting digital literacy. These skits would range from a few minutes to a few hours. This move by the police witnessed broader reach and acceptance among the local communities because of their audience-targeted approach[3]

In July 2018, the Uttar Pradesh decided on setting up ‘Digital Armies’ comprised of prominent residents along with ex-servicemen, teachers, doctors, advocates, and journalists. WhatsApp groups will be formed to keep a vigil on inflammatory posts, rumor-mongering, and cases of lynching. By way of the initiative, all the police stations in the state will manage these WhatsApp groups. The ‘digital volunteers’ will share with the police various information, rumors, photographs, and videos, of their respective areas, that qualify as fake news on the social media and at the same time, disseminate correct information among the locals to curb the spread of rumors. This initiative was in the wake of the Central government’s directions to take effective steps to stop the spread of rumors and fake news (PTI, 2018). This move can bring in and place the civic society at the helm of steps required to be undertaken in the fight against fake news propagation.

PROVISIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000

Section 69 (1) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 relate to how the Controller can extend decryption of information facilities to any agency for intercepting any information transmitted through any computer resource. The person-in-charge of the computer resource shall, when called upon by any agency directed under Section 69 (1), extend all facilities and technical assistance to decrypt the information. Any person who fails to assist the agency referred to in Section 69 (2) shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years.

Section 79 of the Act, provides for cases when the Network service providers or intermediaries are not held liable. This provision of law is precisely for the removal of doubts and thus declares that no person providing any service as a network service provider/intermediary shall be liable under this Act, rules or regulations made thereunder for any third party information or data made available by him. This provision comes into play is if he proves that the offense or contravention was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offense or contravention. Also, new proposed changes under Section 79 require the online platforms to deploy technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms to proactively identify or remove or disable access to illegal information or content.

In September 2018, Gauba Committee, a team reporting to government on menacing instances of fake news leading to cases of lynching came up with a recommendation. The Committee, headed by the home secretary of India, Rajiv Gauba, recommended that India heads of the global internet and social media giants should face criminal proceedings if their platforms are used to propagate fake news or campaigns that incite violence that leads to riots and cases of lynching .In June, Gauba urged the representatives of Google and Facebook to take appropriate measures to filter fake and explosive content.

AWARNESS- AN ALTERNATIVE

In India, awareness campaigns have been released by service providers to alert users about the consequences of fake news and why it is important to be self-aware before forwarding any message.  In December 2018, WhatsApp rolled out three ad films as a part of their strategy to fight back circulation of fake news ahead of general elections these campaigns asked the users to check the integrity of the information they receive on forward messages, before sharing it to others.Purpose of any news is to make people aware of what is happening around and allow people to have a common ground to converse to constitute a dynamic public sphere. Social media, with its reach, popularity, and instantaneity, is a potent tool for communication development if used. Otherwise, it could also become a double-edged sword. Fake News has become a menace which could only be curbed when collective efforts are made from individual to policy level.

TO COUNTER FAKE NEWS

New digital platforms have unleashed innovative journalistic practices that enable novel forms of communication and greater global reach that at any point in human history. But on the other hand, disinformation and hoaxes that are popularly referred to as “fake news” are accelerating and affecting the way individuals interpret daily developments. Driven by foreign actors, citizen journalism, and the proliferation of talk radio and cable news, many information systems have become more polarized and contentious, and there has been a precipitous decline in public trust in traditional journalism.

Fake news and disinformation campaigns are especially problematic in democratic systems, and there is growing debate on how to address these issues without undermining the benefits of digital media. In order to maintain an open, democratic system, it is important that government, business, and consumers work together to solve these problems. The news industry must provide high-quality journalism in order to build public trust and correct fake news and disinformation without legitimizing them. Governments should promote news literacy and strong professional journalism in their societies. Educational institutions should make informing people about news literacy a high priority. Technology companies should invest in tools that identify fake news, reduce financial incentives for those who profit from disinformation, and improve online accountability. Finally, individuals should follow a diversity of new sources, and be skeptical of what they read and watch.

Government responsibilites

  1. One of the most important thing governments around the world can do is to encourage independent, professional journalism. The general public needs reporters who help them make sense of complicated developments and deal with the ever-changing nature of social, economic, and political events. Many areas are going through transformation that I elsewhere have called “megachanges” and these shifts have created enormous anger, anxiety, and confusion. In a time of considerable turmoil, it is vital to have a healthy Fourth Estate that is independent of public authorities.
  2. Governments should avoid crackdowns on the news media’s ability to cover the news. Those activities limit freedom of expression and hamper the ability of journalists to cover political developments. The United States should set a good example with other countries If American leaders censor or restrict the news media, it encourages other countries to do the same thing.
  3. Governments should avoid censoring content and making online platforms liable for misinformation. This could curb free expression, making people hesitant to share their political opinions for fear it could be censored as fake news. Such overly restrictive regulation could set a dangerous precedent and inadvertently encourage authoritarian regimes to weaken freedom of expression.

Educational institutions

Funding efforts to enhance news literacy should be a high priority for governments. This is especially the case with people who are going online for the first time. For those individuals, it is hard to distinguish false from real news, and they need to learn how to evaluate news sources, not accept at face value everything they see on social media or digital news sites. Helping people become better consumers of online information is crucial as the world moves towards digital immersion. There should be money to support partnership between journalists, businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations to encourage news literacy.

How the public can protest itself-

  1. Individuals can protect themselves from false news and disinformation by following a diversity of people and perspectives. Relying upon a small number of like-minded news sources limits the range of material available to people and increases the odds they may fall victim to hoaxes or false rumors. This method is not entirely fool-proof, but it increases the odds of hearing well-balanced and diverse viewpoints.
  2. In the online world, readers and viewers should be skeptical about news sources. In the rush to encourage clicks, many outlets resort to misleading or sensationalized headlines. They emphasize the provocative or the attention-grabbing, even if that news hook is deceptive. News consumers have to keep their guard up and understand that not everything they read is accurate and many digital sites specialize in false news. Learning how to judge news sites and protect oneself from inaccurate information is a high priority in the digital age.

Technology company responsibilities

Technology firms should invest in technology to find fake news and identify it for users through algorithms and crowdsourcing. There are innovations in fake news and hoax detection that are useful to media platforms. For example, fake news detection can be automated, and social media companies should invest in their ability to do so.

News industry actions

  1. The news industry should continue to focus on high-quality journalism that builds trust and attracts greater audiences. An encouraging development is that many news organizations have experienced major gains in readership and viewership over the last couple of years, and this helps to put major news outlets on a better financial footing. But there have been precipitous drops in public confidence in the news media in recent years, and this has damaged the ability of journalists to report the news and hold leaders accountable. During a time of considerable chaos and disorder, the world needs a strong and viable news media that informs citizens about current events and long-term trends.
  2. It is important for news organizations to call out fake news and disinformation without legitimizing them. They can do this by relying upon their in- house professionals and well- respected fact-checkers. In order to educate users about news sites that are created to mislead, nonprofit organizations such as Politifact, Factcheck.org, and Snopes judge the accuracy of leader claims and write stories detailing the truth or lack thereof  of particular developments. These sources have become a visible part of election campaigns and candidate assessment in the United States and elsewhere. Research by Dartmouth College Professor Brendan Nyhan has found that labeling a Facebook post as “disputed” reduces the percentage of readers believing the false news by 10 percentage points. In addition, Melissa Zimdars, a communication and media professor at Merrimack College, has created a list of 140 websites that use “distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information.” This helps people track promulgators of false news.

So, everyone has a responsibility to combat the scourge of fake news. This ranges from supporting investigative journalism, reducing financial incentives for fake news, and improving digital literacy among the general public.

CURRENT REPORT ON FAKE NEWS

A state government in India is considering creating legislation aimed at punishing purveyors of online misinformation specifically doctored photographs. The Economic Times report in mid June 2018 that West Bengal officials want to clarify how the state could additionally prosecute the publication of misinformation. Currently, citizents can be jailed in the state for posting misinformation if it causes fear or alarm in public.

In addition to bolstering existing law, West Bengal has been preparing a database of fake news stories distributed on social media over the past few years. It has also kept record of past offenders. The efforts come amid rising tensions related to misinformation in India. Rumours on messaging platforms be like Whatsapp have allegedly incited violence across the country and the national government itself has tried to issue anti-fake news guidelines in the past.

In October, Weired reported that the Indian Government had turned off the internet more than 100 times over the past year to quell the spread of rumours on whatsapp . In 2018, the international non profit access now documented 134 internet shutdowns in India.

In December, the ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released draft changes to the 2000 IT Act that would require social media platforms to start tracing the originators of messages when compelled by the Government. The effort is aimed at curbing the spread of unlawful content and misinformation on platforms like whatsapp.

References:

[1] www.wellcome.org

[2] Economicstimes.com

[3] Arxiv.org

Picture Source :

 
Misha Bharti and Jeba Boktiar Mondal