{"id":235461,"date":"2023-03-31T20:20:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T14:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=235461"},"modified":"2023-04-13T14:01:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T08:31:31","slug":"the-country-mustnt-get-entangled-in-a-web-of-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-country-mustnt-get-entangled-in-a-web-of-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The country mustn\u2019t get entangled in a web of fake news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source-<\/strong> The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cThe country mustn\u2019t get entangled in a web of fake news\u201d<\/strong> published in the<strong> \u201cmint\u201d<\/strong> on <strong>30th March 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in Internal Security Challenges<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>&#8211; Issues related to misinformation and fake news<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; The events during the Covid19 shows the disrupting potential of fake news.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are some examples related to the impact of fake news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Fake news during the Covid hit the <strong>poultry sector<\/strong> hard. As per research note published by <strong>ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute<\/strong>, industry\u2019s losses were over $3 billion.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <strong>All India Poultry Breeders Association<\/strong>, Indian poultry farmers faced an average loss of about \u20b950 per kg as a result of rumors.<\/p>\n<p>The misinformation on the Indian poultry industry had <strong>socio-economic ramifications.<\/strong> Stakeholders operating at different levels of the value chain had multiple forms of impacts. They faced <strong>social and psychological distress.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Farmers could not sell their chicken for a long period of time during the pandemic. As <strong>procurement dropped sharply<\/strong>, they were left with culling as their only option. This led to both <strong>short- and long-term financial adversities<\/strong> for farmers.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How fake news works?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Fake news rarely <strong>works in isolation<\/strong>. A message that might look harmless has the potential to impact many livelihoods.<\/p>\n<p>Research shows that misleading or manipulative information relies on <strong>psychological mechanisms<\/strong>. In times of anxiety, a <strong>defence mechanis<\/strong>m could kick. It helps the mind to deny the <strong>seriousness of a threat.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why does India need to act decisively to deal with fake news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>India has an estimated<strong> 850 million active internet users<\/strong>. This growth has seen a<strong> parallel boom of misinformation<\/strong>. <strong>NCRB<\/strong> shows a spike in fake news cases under <strong>Section 505 of the IPC<\/strong> across the country in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The fact-checking agency of Lok Sabha busted 1,160 rumours since its inception in November 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Newschecker.in identified <strong>2,824 instances of misinformation<\/strong> across nine languages in 2021 alone. Since a vast number of cases <strong>go unreported<\/strong>. The actual prevalence of the problem is significantly worse.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Artificial intelligence<\/strong> tools that create<strong> photo-realistic images<\/strong> have added to the menace.<\/p>\n<p>India has had<strong> no specific legislation<\/strong> to regulate fake news. The government relies on <strong>insufficient provisions<\/strong> such as the <strong>Information Technology Act and IPC. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the way forward to deal with fake news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Better campaigns<\/strong> aimed at generating <strong>media literacy<\/strong> among users of social media are needed.\u00a0 It is incumbent upon all users, however, to i<strong>dentify fake news and think hard <\/strong>before we share anything over the internet.<\/p>\n<p>The upcoming<strong> Digital India bill<\/strong> is expected to have measures against fake news. In framing rules, there is a need to understand the <strong>gravity of the problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The anticipated law itself does not end up becoming a <strong>weapon against free expression.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is crucial for the bill to appropriately <strong>define the term \u2018fake news\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source- The post is based on the article \u201cThe country mustn\u2019t get entangled in a web of fake news\u201d published in the \u201cmint\u201d on 30th March 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in Internal Security Challenges Relevance&#8211; Issues related to misinformation and fake news News&#8211; The events during the Covid19 shows&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-country-mustnt-get-entangled-in-a-web-of-fake-news\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The country mustn\u2019t get entangled in a web of fake news<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[511,216,10501,11125],"class_list":["post-235461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-fake-news","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","tag-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701413539},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}