Countering fake news menace

Jonathan Swift wrote in 1710 that, ‘Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after’. In 2018, the lies travel even faster than a decade earlier. Lies repeated through retweets and viral WhatsApp messages always make it look like an unquestionable truth. If a lie is repeated, then it becomes the story, and a delay in response makes it even more credible. In this entire misinformation campaign, a liar still cares about the truth because he wants to conceal it from you and makes efforts to camouflage the facts with fiction. But the irony is that no matter how many rebuttals are registered in the digital age, no one has time to stop and correct the wrongdoings.

Cyber and social media is emerging as a most powerful tool to create instability in a very stable and peaceful environment. Experts believe that in a cyber and information war, it is easier to attack then to defend against this new threat to states. Stable and peaceful states can plunge into chaos by a very well-articulated and calibrated disinformation and perception war. It has the potential to create fear among minorities and also make the communal majority feel slighted on religious and cultural grounds. The recent spate of rumours that led to the lynching of innocent people on charges of cows slaughter, child kidnapping and braid cutting is an example that social media and cyberspace abounds with unprecedented and revolutionary dangers.

The threat from the cyber disinformation campaign are many. It can lead to a number of alarming situations such as societal tensions, communal disharmony, crime against minorities, artificial scarcity of essential commodities, panic among masses because of a threat from a disease or epidemic and a perceived impending natural calamity. Some of these manufactured narratives can trigger uncontrolled chaos. For instance, the exodus of thousands of students of the North East from many metros of India in 2012 had exposed the potential threat to the cultural fabric of India. But there is further threat here. Not only can a cyber disinformation campaign radicalise political opinion, and create a communal divide among the masses, it also has the potential to force the collapse of law and order. It can artificially create public opinion against the established order and fuel revolution such as Arab Spring that almost destabilised the whole of West Asia and North Africa. Not surprisingly, in the 21 st century it is emerging as one of the biggest threats to internal security.

The threat becomes even more potent if the response mechanism is adhoc and delayed. Information and psychological operations have long been a tool in the arsenal of states to execute non-contact war with the adversary, but what is more dangerous is the level of openness and the scale and frequency of such attacks. Fabio Rugge, the head of ISPI’s Centre on Cybersecurity says that, “Cyberspace is a powerful multiplier of the destabilising effects of manipulated information because it allows high connectivity, low latency, low cost of entry, multiple distribution points without intermediaries, and a total disregard for physical distance or national borders.”

The new generation war is termed by many experts as ‘mind hacking’. Why it has assumed a serious threat in India is because it creates a trust deficit in the secular fabric of the nation, erodes faith in the institutions and subverts the societal value system. Law and order can be reinforced but a loss of faith and trust among the citizenry is difficult to repair once lost. It becomes even more potent if the government has no control to monitor and bring perpetrators to book. As a result, what we need is a national policy, doctrine and structural mechanism on the ground to deal with such an enormous threat to our security.

What would such a policy include? India would need to invest to ensure that the infrastructure is created within the country and all servers are placed in the country instead of in the US and in other foreign countries. Let us control our own cyberspace and not let others become the custodians of our destiny and information wealth. India also needs a stringent law to deal with the culprits of the misinformation campaign that triggers violence and causes social upheaval. The cyber attacks, fake news and misinformation campaign directed to destroy social harmony need to be treated as terrorism. Long term policy formulation on threats and manifestation is required urgently. We do not have a 24x7 vigil on cyber and social space and letting it stay unmonitored or unattended is asking for a serious catastrophe. It needs investment in human resources, and a dedicated and accountable organisation that has a regimented working ethos, like the military.

India needs to look at how other countries are dealing with this threat. In the UK, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has a mix of military and civilian professionals. The organisation does not require even the approval by the Prime Minister, or any minister, before deliberately targeting communications, which can even include that of parliamentarians. India too needs to think on similar lines of forming agencies to deal with cyber threats. Definitely there is a need to ensure checks and balance but such agencies need to be autonomous, staffed by professionals of very high degree of integrity and free from political control. The response should be rapid, effective and credible. Responding and identifying the threat is of utmost importance so that the threat can be neutralised before it manifests and then spirals out of control.

The author is senior fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. Views are personal