As mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp messages sweep India, authorities struggle to combat fake news

collected by :Molly Tony

☰Asia & PacificAs mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp messages sweep India, authorities struggle to combat fake newsA villager displays a false message shared on Facebook's WhatsApp service while attending an event to raise awareness about fake news in Balgera, India, on June 12. (Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg News)NEW DELHI —More than a dozen people have been killed across India since May in violence fueled primarily by fake social media messages, as officials struggle to rein in this growing technology-driven menace. In the latest such lynching, a mob killed five people Sunday after rumors spread on social media that they were trafficking children. Satish Bhaykre, 21, was beaten by a mob because of a fake WhatsApp text. In April, a circular from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry proposing stiff penalties for journalists who post fake news was pulled in less than 24 hours after an outcry.

Facebook is using Messenger and WhatsApp to spot sketchy accounts and fake news

Handily for Facebook, it's also a roundabout way of fighting back against the spread of fake news that's proliferated on the platform. So, it's like anything — and people and pages have adapted, using Facebook's standalone apps like Messenger and WhatsApp to spread that content directly to other users. And Facebook even taking out ads in Indian newspapers in recent days to warn people about misuse of such platforms. The feature — which Facebook has acknowledged it's playing with at the moment as part a "small test" — isn't specifically about going after Russian actors. Oh, and Brazil is also home to 120 million users of WhatsApp in a country of 200 million people.

Will shutting down WhatsApp really solve the increasing menace of fake news?

as informed in Since the I&B Ministry pulled up Whatsapp for the increasing fake news menace in India, different solutions have been offered from different quarters. However, it is without question that a threat to the companies' profits will drive them to act. ContentID as a system is itself ridden with problems, but clearly, solutions can be found even to enable regulating online content. Even this, did lead to changes in YouTube's action against online content. For resolving the issue of online content, the social media companies, the government, researchers, technology developers and innovators, and the people themselves must come together.