There is an accumulated awareness regarding the menace of fake news. Such items of news are normally planted through modalities not necessarily always ethical. A leading TV news channel has a daily programme on the issue of fake news.
The instances were revealing by themselves. When new horizons and dimensions of media developed (like the social media), the conventional self-restraint found itself corroded. From the situation of no restraint, we have now again regulate and calibrate the system so as to ensure the befitting image and role of different contours of the media.
External regulatory mechanisms have always been opposed by all branches of media. But a built-in in-house media is the most desirable and ideal situation. Every freedom is at a price. Freedom must not turn into licence. These are the standard norms one has been used to.
Once compromised through such measures as fake news, the mutual trust between the media and the society at large would turn severely vulnerable. We live our lives for ensuring an inter-gender equity. We cannot, therefore, be a party to the declining trends.
With the elections coming up, it is critically important that Indians have access to credible information before they vote. The problem is that many do not feel they do. In a brand new survey of English-language Internet users in India conducted by the University of Oxford, it is seen that a majority of the respondents are concerned with whether the news they come across online is real or fake.
After the Pulwama attack, social media and messaging apps were flooded with false and misleading contents as people tried to make sense of the horrible violence. Trushar Barot, a former BBC journalist who leads Facebook’s integrity initiatives in India, tweeted, “I have never seen anything like this before – the scale of fake contents circulating on one story.”
Disinformation is not only a problem of social media and digital platforms. In a recent survey, those who use Facebook and/or WhatsApp for news do not report higher levels of concern over whether the news they come across is real or fake than those who do not rely on them. It seems people are as concerned about information from news media as they are about information from social media.
More detailed questions during a survey reveal a far more complex set of wider problems. At the heart of disinformation problems are stories that are completely made up for political or commercial reasons to try to discredit rivals or make money from click-bait. It has been found that 51% claim to be concerned about this problem.
But strikingly, a similar number say they are concerned about what they consider to be poor journalism (stories that respondents consider marred by factual mistakes, inaccuracies, etc.). And 50% claim that they are concerned by hyper-partisan political contents where facts are spun or twisted to push a particular agenda whether from politicians, pundits or publishers.
So, when many Indians in the run up to the elections say they are concerned about what is real and what is fake on the Internet, this is clearly in part about social media and digital platforms. But unfortunately, it is also about some news media and some politicians who people see as part of the disinformation problems that India faces. It is only a few years ago that the Press Council of India said “the phenomenon of ‘paid news’ has acquired serious dimensions”, “goes beyond the corruption of individual journalists and media companies and has become pervasive, structured and highly organised.”
The council concluded, “It is undermining democracy in India.” Cobrapost’s sting operation last summer, which exposed large media houses willing to peddle propaganda as news, demonstrates that some of these problems persist.
It is clear that platform companies have much to do to improve their content moderation and contain disinformation. Facebook has announced that it currently has over 500 fulltime employees and at least 3,500 external contractors who focus on election work, on top of the 30,000 people across the company focused on safety and security issues. (Given the fact that India accounts for more than 10% of the global user base of both Facebook and WhatsApp and is growing rapidly, it would be good to know how many of these people are focused specifically on India).
Similarly, it is troubling that some coordinated attempts to amplify and spread false information sometimes seem to emanate from major political parties and activists who support them.
This ought to stop; and if it does not, has to be continuously and critically covered by independent journalists to ensure that people are aware of what is going on.
The Indian news media has miles to go before it sleeps as it has promises to keep. This media has a vital role to play in rising to the occasion and regain the trust of the public. It is in cleansing the process and sanitising the filtration of new that the media has risen to the occasion to reform from within. This requires a lot of mutual trust than mistrust. The youths have to be very cautious; and they being a huge number with them in an election year, imposing a high degree of public trust has to be done not by misdeeds by abusing the freedom given to a party. There has to be mutuality in a democracy.
The media in general has to work very hard towards the objective of curbing the increasing trend of fake news. In a situation where disinformation seems to be everywhere, and digital platforms, some politicians and some news media are intertwined in these problems, we can only hope that those news media which genuinely do stand out as providers of credible information are able to convince people that they provide exactly that – news that is worthy not only of people’s attention but also their trust.
But a response from the public to the increasing trend is the need of the hour. For this, we have to build public opinion and in the formulation of the opinion the media place a vital role of influencing the final decision. This power is amenable to abuse like in such power would be.
It is the level of sensitivity and responsiveness of the civil society that would finally provide the backbone to survive, fight and win. In this long march, formation of public opinion has to emanate from grassroots. Right from the Palli Sabha onwards, the different alternates can be projected and debated upon so as to filter the public opinion as it moves upward towards the Government and the Union Parliament.
These are the issues that must concern the youths being the majority. Let us not have the liberty itself at stake. Curbing a wrong trend is a desirable step in the interest of the society. Contributing to that is not a sectarian interest; and that matter concerns all of us.
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)