Exposing the World of Fake News
-By Sarah Khan
Fake news is the information that has been posted wrong intentionally with or without verification in order to manipulate the perception of the public regarding the main issue.
It is said that fake news spreads faster than real news. So, when people come across misinformation, it tends to mislead them. The misrepresentation of a certain problem can lead to propaganda and suppress the main problem. This can inflict violent ideas in the audience and promote violence, hate speech and extremism.
A catastrophic outlook of specific obstacle can influence opinions and reduce the impact of real news because the audience looks for spicy issues to mess with. It can lead to polarisation of public opinion on critical issues and impact their social values and harmony.
One such example is that from the Free voice book by Ravish Kumar which states an incident where some news agencies showed that the holocaust of Jews in Germany by Hitler was something that never happened. Taking another instance of Tabliqi Jamat which was blamed for the spread of covid pandemic, shows us how fake news can polarise our thoughts and cause hate towards a specific community. Tabliqi Jamat was used as a scapegoat to hide the failures of government in preventing the pandemic. Later, the Bombay High court proved the news to be false. In another case, Postcard news platform had once published a news that stated that a Jain Monk was attacked by Muslims in Bengaluru. Later, this news turned out to be fake, too. The culprits use SEO tactics to generate higher attention and views to their fake news.
Fake news are a threat to democracy as they shatter the peace of society with false narratives and influence the public to engage in wrongdoings.
True! Fake news breeds distrust and division among people
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