Fake News: The Digital Pandemic

The author Urja Mishra is pursuing B.A.LL. B from D.E.S’s Shri Navalmal Firodia Law College under the Pune University. She is in her Second Year of Study. She is very much keen and interested to work on the following topics: Cyber Law, Social-Media, Psycho-Legal issues, and Commercial Laws.

Introduction

The world isn’t scandalized by our freedom, but by our fakeness. Digital News is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. In the age of digitalization, there is accelerating growth of information online on various portals and social media. This vast ocean of Digital Information is endless and thus it creates conducive conditions for the creation and spread of the most vulnerable virus: FAKE NEWS. Although there isn’t a concrete definition of Fake News, it has been comprehensively defined by PolitiFact[i]: "Fake news is made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word." Fake news can become immensely influential and can spread enormously fast thus making it impossible to decipher the true from the false.

Purpose

• Intentional Misinformation: Augmentation of use of social media paves way for exposure to new information and stories every day. It is challenging and burdensome to verify and has lasting implications on the minds of the reader. For example, people’s reasoning and rationale are based on what they are exposed to either intentionally or subconsciously. Consequently, if the information that they are witnessing is not accurate, they would be bound to establish their logic on lies.
• Click Bait Headlines, generating ad revenue: Clickbait headlines are with the sole purpose of getting high traffic. The issue with these headlines is that they are manipulative and don’t deliver the message they promise.
• Sensationalization and Financial Profits: News organizations mistakenly relay false information from unreliable anonymous sources, who use mass media as a tool for retaliation and defamation. Manipulation of content and presenting genuine information in a fake manner with the intention to deceive and tell a different story only to escalate or sustain viewership or readership, from which media outlets can price their advertising higher to maximize their profits based on higher numbers of viewers and/or readers.
• Political propaganda: Misleading content is the type of fake news that uses the information to frame an issue or an individual. A sought-after form of news used by politicians to get down their opponents by making false claims with possibly some truth.
• Discrediting a public figure: Fake news spread with the intention to cause harm and defame a public figure. A tarnished public image negatively affects their careers leading to great losses. For e.g.: Akshay Kumar has recently filed a defamation suit against Youtuber Rashid Siddiqui for spreading fake news about him.

The Indian Scenario

Statistics and Background

According to statista.com[ii] India had approximately 302 million internet users in 2015 which by 2020 had reached 700 million and is estimated to go up to 974 million in 2025. According to the reports released in July 2019, India has around 400 million WhatsApp users and Facebook has around 241 million active users, which makes India the biggest market for digital promoters to sell information.

After the introduction of the Reliance Jio network carrier, the mobile data charges across India fell and enabled huge sections of the population to access the internet. To date, Indian network carriers offer the lowest mobile data charges in the world given the competition in the market.

The false news pedalled in India has had devastating effects, especially this year. A medical claim on WhatsApp claiming that drinking Gaumutra or Cow Urine is a cure for the virus was so widely spread in the country that a few political parties organised events where hundreds of people gathered to drink cow urine as suggested by WhatsApp Forward to protect themselves from the pandemic.

Another such Claim was that eating chicken would cause coronavirus. This news had a major effect on the life of many poultry farmers and businesses run around the industry. The falsified information spread through social media, led to a staggering loss to the poultry industry with the price falling from 180/Kg to 60-70/Kg in days and around an estimated loss of `1.6 billion per day according to All India Poultry Breeders’ Association[iii], poultry farmers were forced to sell their chicken at low prices or giving them for free, but lots of chickens old and newly born were also horrifically killed. A ripple effect of this was observed in the maize and soya industry of India, as the major consumer of these industries were the poultry farmers.

Law relating to False News:

India does not have any specific law to deal with the fake news published or spread online, there are a few legal provisions under the Indian Penal Code to deal with the online menace. The existing legal provisions are:

• Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act[iv]: Whoever makes or circulates false alarms of warning as to disaster or its severity or magnitude leading to panic.
• Section 66D of the Information Technology Act[v]: Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource, cheats by personating.
• Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code[vi]: Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot—if rioting be committed—if not committed
• Section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code: Remedies for defamation and libel.
• Section 505(1) of the Indian Penal Code: Making, publishing, or circulating any statement, rumour, or report which may cause fear or alarm to the public, or any section of the public.

Social Media, Technology and Fake News:

The biggest problem behind fighting fake news on a digital platform is that it is not a piece of code or data that can be detected by automated tools available online. It is information that gets posted and surfaced online which can only be declared true or false by human intervention. Nevertheless, our technology can help improve transparency around fake claims and misinformation.

Google has started a google news initiative – Google News Initiative; Twitter has added real-time fact check for misinformation; Instagram and Facebook have added their fact-checked links for all the posts about elections during elections to prevent any and all misinformation; WhatsApp has changed its forwarding policy to limit 5 at a time to discourage chain forwarding. Most major social media platforms have AI in-built to prevent the use of bots to spam.

Summary – The Digital Pandemic

Fake news by the use of digital platforms has plagued the world internationally, rightfully calling it a pandemic.

The role of the mass media and social networks has always been fundamental in the dispensation of news. Long time running, big media houses are going digital to keep up with the digital age. News is churned out on a large scale from such media houses to keep up with their social media counterparts. This news is observed to be coupled with Truth-Bias, Naïve Realism, and Confirmation Bias; resulting in a chain reaction wherein people are consuming and sharing the news that they believe to be authentic.

Traditionally, the general population, in good faith, takes the information, including fake news, most relevant to their own personal situation and uses it to formulate their own interpretation of the given situation. However now in the digital age, the consumers of this readily available fake news struggle to understand what is relevant to them in the sea of non-authentic news which is complicated to digest and culminates in them a feeling of fear. This vulnerability in times of chaos is taken advantage of by political figures who make statements to further the public turmoil. This in turn results in overconsumption of fake news which has already started to cause psychological negative effects of stress and lack of safety in the population. The massive presence in the mass media of experts who express their opinions, sometimes not supported by scientific or statistical evidence, can be interpreted as a desire to appeal rather than the need to provide the correct information. The alarming and convincing tone of some experts and public figures has caused serious repercussions. There are ample social media platforms that are well known for the spread of misinformation and denial of scientific literature which is used as proof by a lot of people to further interpret it and spread their propaganda.

Conclusion:

Fake news is a formidable hurdle of the 21st century across the world. Digital platforms have accelerated the rate of spread of fake news and reached an unprecedented level which is bound to increase with an increase in users. The tussle between media houses to get the first scoop, breaking news, and juicy content lead to little scope for verification.

The negative effects of all of the above have been seen during this global pandemic which saw the spread of fake medical advice and was banked upon heavily to sell products and medication falsely advertised as cures. On the other hand, false news also had devastating economic effects on many industries which were tried to make the scapegoat for the virus to spread.

Lastly, the digital pandemic is here to stay unless immediate and continuous efforts by governments, NGOs, and people at large are not made.

Disclaimer: This article is an original submission of the Author. Niti Manthan does not hold any liability arising out of this article. Kindly refer to our Terms of use or write to us in case of any concerns.

References:

[i] Angie Holan, PolitiFact.com, 17 October 2017

https://www.politifact.com/article/2017/oct/18/deciding-whats-fake-medias-definition-fake-news-vs/

[ii] Sandhya Keelery, Statista.com, 16 October 2020

https://www.statista.com/statistics/558610/number-of-mobile-internet-user-in-india/

[iii] Updates, All India Poultry Association, 2020

https://www.poultryindia.co.in/poultry-biz/associations

[iv] Disaster Management Act, 2005

[v] Information Technology Act, 2000

[vi] Indian Penal Code, 1860