‘Social media gives velocity to fake news’

Media companies and political parties have a role in curbing it, say speakers at the literary festival

January 15, 2019 01:05 am | Updated 01:05 am IST - CHENNAI

Social media has given a velocity to fake news that was not present earlier and media organisations need to look at having regular columns and television slots to inform citizens about misinformation campaigns on a daily basis, Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said.

“Social media has given a velocity which was not there before…that is what needs to be curbed. Unfortunately, social media companies do not acknowledge this problem, partly because a large chunk of their business runs on things going viral. Twitter does not even acknowledge… no option to report fake news. Facebook does it, but it’s more of a PR exercise right now,” Mr. Sinha said at a panel discussion on ‘Crisis of Credibility: Fighting Fake News’ at The Hindu Lit for Life on Monday. The session was moderated by Harsh Sethi.

Held accountable

Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu, said political parties should be held responsible at the same standards and same level as journalists.

“This is not the first time in history that people are spreading rumours, false stories, but this is the first time that we are seeing consistent three-pronged attacks on journalists as a community. It is something that is created to brand all journalism as irrelevant,” she said.

Ms. Suhasini said it was that threat that everyone needs to worry about. Earlier, when a story was put out that was inconvenient to one party or the other, there would be a denial and a disagreement on the story.

Widespread backlash

“Today, what happens is that an official denial comes out and then a political agenda is attributed to a journalist. Social media then comes bang on with all kinds of stories that discredit a journalist,” she noted.

Sriram Lakshman, The Hindu ’s U.S. correspondent, said anonymity on social media is one of the problems with fake news. “The more something is shared, the more its [supposed] ‘truthiness’,” Mr. Sriram Lakshman said.

‘Maturity needed’

Mr. Sriram said the issue of accepting some news that was shared as fake also needed a mature ego.

“There’s some evidence to show that once you are committed to a certain view, even when you receive information that contradicts your existing views, there’s a cognitive bias. It takes a mature ego to say I am wrong.”

Lawyer and columnist, Sanjay Pinto, said anonymity and credibility could not go together.

“To start a social media account you need no proof of name and address. People can be anonymous and tweet. Social media is a dangerous vehicle for fake news,” he said.

R. Jagannathan, editorial director of Swarajya , said that technology would ultimately be able to identify about 80% of fake news in the next three years, but fake narratives would continue to live on.

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