Types of fake news

How to deal with fake news? 

 The current response to fake news primarily revolves around three prongs — rebuttal, removal of the fake news item and educating the public. Rebuttal: It is a form of fact-checking wherein the fake news is debunked by pointing out errors like mismatch, malicious editing and misattribution. Removal of Fake news: Technical companies like Facebook and YouTube uses algorithms to proactively remove fake news from their platforms. Also, WhatsApp has put a limit on forwarding messages, so as to limit the spread to fake news. Educating the end-users to be more discerning consumers of news by informing them of verification tools so that they can ascertain the accuracy of a news item before sharing it. Another method that is propagated by the government, concerns tracking the ‘source’ of fake news. For this government proposes to de-anonymise all social media accounts. However, this provision is criticized on account of the invasion of privacy, curbing of free speech, and creation of surveillance state. Way Forward While above-mentioned steps are necessary measures, it is not apparent that they are sufficient in themselves to address the larger ‘political’ problem posed by fake news, as: It is impossible to completely ‘remove’ fake news even after rebuttal, given the decentralised nature of dissemination. It may be possible to rebut fake news but the ‘fake news factory’ inspired by political agenda, will keep churning out similar stories to advance its chosen narrative. The very act of rebuttal reinforces the fake narrative that is being pushed. Since the act of rebuttal gets confined within the original framework of the fake news