DNA Edit: Tighten the noose - Steps to control fake news are gathering momentum

Steps to tighten the noose around fake news is getting tighter, as General Election 2019 approaches. The Central government has sought to revise the rules governing information and technology.

The draft amendment released this week has said that social media platforms and messaging apps will be required to develop tools to ‘identify’ and curb fake news and unlawful content. As with most things Indian, there are two clear points of view – both needless to say political – that have emerged on the horizon. For the government, it is important to keep fake news on the leash.

In the last couple of years, the widespread use of applications like WhatsApp, has led to violence and incidents of lynching over what have finally turned out to be unsubstantiated messages and ‘news’. The importance of these modern-day messengers can scarcely be underrated.

A recent survey, for instance, suggested that a whopping 90 per cent of 1,000 non-metro respondents questioned believed in WhatsApp forwards as a major news source! Given the example of US elections, where the term fake news, popularised by the US President first gained currency, India has to watch out.

If these months before the general election are any indication, the battle is going to be no holds barred and the chances of fake news coming in handy to beat an opponent, will be very high. India is in talks with tech majors Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as part of the proposed amendments to rules under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

For the opposition parties, though, it is another stick to beat the government with. Some among them have charged the government with tweaking rules and breaking end-to-end encryption to track messages and snoop on citizens.

But the fact of the matter is that in order to track down culprits, there is no other way to reach the last mile except to use surveillance. One thing is clear though: no one here wants a repeat of the US presidential elections.