Fake news leaves very deep negative impact on people, society and system. These days it is creating a lot of storms and controversies in Indian polity. It has been the subject of discussion at the national level for various reasons. Especially in social media, fake news is so common that even public figures, who have largest fan following, do not crosscheck its authenticity before sharing it.
In recent days, it came to light when BJP MP and Bollywood actor Presh Rawal made an objectionable remark against prominent Indian author and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. He said instead of stone-pelter, Army should tie Roy to the front of a Jeep. While making this statement, he was referring to the incident in which Army used a Kashmiri as human shield by tying him to the front of a jeep. This was condemned widely across the country and it was demanded to punish the army personnel who used the Kashmiri as human shield. However, Rawal wants the same with Roy.
Rawal did not clarify why he tweeted such an objectionable comment against Roy but it is said that a fake interview published in a Pakistani website Times of Islamabad in which Roy has been attributed wrongly to a bold statement against Indian state regarding the Kashmir issue. According to the website, Roy visited Kashmir in recent days and made this comment. But Roy clarified to the news portal The Wire that it’s a crap and she did not visit Kashmir and neither made any such statement in recent days. That fake interview triggered Rawal to incite violence against the author.
On the basis of that fake interview, a number of media houses published stories in not only India but in Pakistan too. Some news channels that claim to be nationalist and pro-Army, ran debates and shows on the basis of that fake statement. Despite proved fake news, Rawal and those who made up stories on its basis did not apologise. It’s not only politicians but also media organisations, whose credibility matters a lot, can’t differentiate real news from a fake one.
The second incident of falling prey to fake news is also related to a BJP leader. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted a fake story of the same website Times of Islamabad related to news channel NDTV accusing the channel of having anti-BJP agenda. The story was about flopping Modi government’s flagship programme ‘Make in India’ by quoting a date wrongly attributed to NDTV. In a quick response, NDTV cleared on the same tweet that it’s fake news and NDTV has not published any such data regarding the mentioned programme. Despite having clarified about the fake news, Patra neither apologised nor retracted the tweet but rather insisted on it in the name of freedom of expression. Perhaps, he does not know fake attribution does not come under freedom of expression.
The background of Patra’s tweet is that in a live debate on cow slaughter ban, NDTV anchor Nidhi Razdan asked Patra to leave the show for accusing the channel of having an agenda against BJP and the Modi government. It is also believed that the CBI raid at the house of NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and his wife over an old case of loan default that was denied by them has the same context. However, the issue is here of fake news shared by politicians and others. There is also a case of fake statement on cow and beef wrongly attributed to well-known Singer A. R. Rahman; this has been retweeted by Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. But she later deleted it and apologised after coming to know about the authenticity of the statement.
Apart from these incidents of fake news that hit the debate at the national level, there are a lot of websites that make up stories on different issues and persons. There are people who cook up news to target their critic. There are people who manufacture news for meeting their mischievous and malicious agenda. There are people who do this to fan communal division and spread hatred towards a particular group, community and section. All this is happening in the name of journalism. And these things are being read widely across the nation and the world. These are being circulated far and wide through WhatsApp messages, Facebook pages, twitter accounts, etc. There are huge numbers of people who blindly believe in such information without crosschecking its accuracy and authenticity. Because of insensibility and insensitivity about the impact of such information, people are easily falling prey to fake news.
Pratik Sinha, the son of Human Rights Activist late Mukul Sinha, runs a website Altnews in which he writes articles that expose the websites that publish cock and bull stories. “We have tens of fake news sites out there today generating random fake content, a lot of which is dangerous for the unity and integrity of the country,” he writes. He pointed out some websites Dainikharat.org, Chaskatimes.com and InsistPost.com which are run by Hindutva supporters while researching the fake news factories. “While researching a fake fatwa, I stumble upon the dark alley of fake news industry,” he wrote an article under this heading and exposed the source of the fake news.
Whether it is fake news, rumours or lies, it spreads sharply through the channel of social networking sites to large segments of masses. The reason for its spreading sharply is sensationalism and screaming headlines. It has some contents that are directly related to sentiments. Sometimes, it offends sentiments and some other times it suits to the sentiment. Sometimes, it is deliberately propagated in an organised manner and incites people on illegal and unethical action.
These fake news, rumours and lies play the main role in hatching propaganda and conspiracy. It leaves unavoidable and immeasurable negative impact on the structure of society. It damages the image of people and the community and assassinates their character. Some prominent people are abused for a statement that is wrongly attributed to him. It provides such a content which incites people to violence. It helps creating chaos and unrest. In India, a lot of people were lynched on the basis of rumour of having beef.
On the basis of rumour, even countries have been ruined and wars fought. The US government bombed Iraq on the basis of rumour of having weapons of mass destruction with then President Saddam Hussein. Later, an investigation proved that there were no WMDs with him. Afghanistan was also bombed on the basis of a rumour of hiding Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden there. This claim was also proved false. International media cooked up many stories to substantiate these claims.
Some group and people are deliberately cooking up news stories to serve their malicious agenda and create propaganda. It costs huge damage and loss to peace and justice in the country and the world. Justice and peace lovers must up the ante against the threat and deal with it properly. Media persons should be vigilant to curb it since it damages the credibility and integrity of media. They are the first responsible for it.