THE FAKE CATASTROPHE

- Sushali Shruti

Introduction:

News is mandatory for several reasons in our day to day life. It has grown to more forms than
ever. It’s not only restricted to the 9 PM broadcast on radio and television. The websites we visit,
the type of tweets we read and write, the social media pages we follow and a lot many more
media platforms that we engage ourselves with. Social Media has become a vital part of our
everyday life. It is a mode of communication to promote content sharing and broadcasting social
networking. The usage of social media holds both pros and cons. The authentication of fake
news is generally social media. Digital people, at individual level authenticate multiple fake
news, varying from individual discernment and giving opinions on unauthenticated facts which
at times they have nil knowledge about. Humans vary perspectives and it’s the basic reason why
a minimal news become an extravaganza in a few hours, seasoned with a thousand comments
and critics. There are a million shares on WhatsApp in a day and approximately 90% of them are
fake in nature. They have been made just to gain popularity and reach maximum number of
social media users. It’s all a number game.
Although the socialization of fake news had been since a long period of time. Earlier, the use of
print media was used and now with the evolution of technology, internet and social media and
different search engines have created a tumult. The way a trend has been followed to keep on
sharing fake content on social networking sites is astonishing. The main approach behind this is
to reach large audiences and delude the news consumer. The fake news is shared in various
forms through video clips, news stories, images, voice recordings, bots, or paid critics for several
online troll farm. In India, forums like AltNews and Social Media Hoax Slayer had been actively
involved in spreading falsehood cases, focused to create communal discord. Even globally, there
have been several fake news experienced. Fake news is awful. It leads to a poisonous atmosphere
on digital platform and causes harm to everyone. This results in riots and lynching on the streets.

Popular Fake News which created a havoc in the society:

There have been a number of cases which resulted in decimating the people concerned along
with the surroundings. The after-math of forwarding any news which is unauthenticated and
falsified could be cataclysmic in nature. Provided below are some of the trending fake news
which led to a state of despair.
1. The fake video of UNESCO declaring ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the best national anthem in
the world. Ajay Alok, a JDU leader claimed the same, which was later found to be false.1
2. The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 was also caused by a video being circulated where two
men were allegedly being lynched, which was passed from phone to phone across the
district through the medium of WhatsApp and applications2.
3. A shortage of salt rumor was abundantly forwarded through messenger services in the
year 2016. Despite having a long 7,157 km coastline, mobs tried looting from grocery
shops. A high rise in rice of salt was observed within a span of time3.
4. The 2000 currency notes are embedded with GPS tracking nanochips was a rumor post
demonetization period in 2016. The rumor put emphasis that this would help in detecting
black money4.

There are a thousand more cases referring with fake news which have given a free and easy run
to the criminals and the wrongdoer. The spread of misinformation is now a massive challenge to
overcome from. The maximum number of fake news can be found on WhatsApp as it is
supposed to be the most vulnerable platform. There is a trend of information disorder in the
society today where it becomes really strenuous to delineate truth from a prevaricated fact. Our
past had witnessed examples of moulding truth for material augmentation and also pretzeling
truth in the name of political gain and propaganda.

1
Arjun Deodia, Fact check: Now JD(U) leader falls for best national anthem hoax, India Today ( Aug. 18, 2019,
05:45PM), https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-now-jd-u-leader-falls-for-best-national-anthem-
hoax-1582061-2019-08-18
2
Omar Rashid, Local officials, intel agencies to blame for Muzaffarnagar riots, finds robe panel, The Hindu ( Mar
06, 2016, 07:57 PM), https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/probe-panel-intel-failure-laxity-of-
cops-led-to-muzaffarnagar-riots/article8320841.ece
3
Abhishek Bansal, Top fake news in 2016, Inshorts ( Dec 26, 2016, 11:19 PM), https://inshorts.com/en/news/what-
were-the-top-fake-news-forwards-in-2016-1482774569647
4
Hitesh Arora, Rs. 2000 currency notes do not have nano GPS tracking chips, it’s fake news, Fonearena ( Nov 10,
2016 ) , https://www.fonearena.com/blog/203062/rs-2000-currency-notes-do-not-have-nano-gps-tracking-chip-its-
fake-news-confirms-finance-minister.html
Provisions Related to Fake News: