Internet is filled with fake news. Most of them being a rumor that ends us starting some religious killing and lynching cases. Indian government has already made Whatsapp take necessary measures to resolve the spread of fake news.
After all, social media sites are the main source of spreading a rumor. And as an Indian citizen, you should not believe in every forwarded viral news. Like the one cow lynching case, which ended up killing people.
Now, knowing that Indian Lok Sabha election is about to start, the immensely popular social media platform ‘Facebook’ has also decided to eliminate fake news.
How’s Facebook planning to do that?
On Monday, Samidh Chakrabarti- Director of Facebook’s Product Management for Civic Integrity division, referred to upcoming LS polls as the top priority. In simple words, taking down false propaganda is quite important.
Facebook has decided to contribute in the LS polls 2019 by making changes into its platform to take down fake news. Facebook is already working with Indian media. This has helped Facebook check and flag fake stories.
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Good thing is, with the help of their partners they will able to target news published in multiple languages (including English, Hindi and some other regional Indian languages). Facebook will reduce the number of times flagged story appears on their user’s newsfeed by about 80 percent. This can help the platform to declutter its archive from fake news.
What lead to this initative?
Back in 2016, allegations of outside interference in US election made Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook ) testify in US Senate. As the Company was unable to prevent spread of false information on its platform.
It a wise decision to make new changes into its platform before the Indian General Election, as no one wants to deal with another lawsuit.
In today’s world of technology, social media platforms have become critical tools for Indian political campaigns. There are around 87,000 WhatsApp groups trying to manipulate your decision to vote. It’s a good thing these platforms have finally understood their duty and decided to take down fake news.
Also Read: 87,000 Whatsapp Groups Are Trying To Manipulate Your Decision To Vote
In Conclusion:
Internet is a place where anyone can say anything. This has increased the spread of fake news. Most of the times, we believe in anything that we see on Facebook (or any other social media app). Trusting its authenticity, we start forwarding them to our friends and families. This year India has 900 million eligible voters, out of which 300 million are active on Facebook.
I hope you are not influenced by everything that you read on social media as half of it is fake.
