IS FAKE NEWS AND VERACITY INTERMINGLED? Perilous effect of social media fake news on Indian Societies

Abstract

Fake news can be defined as spreading misinformation or proliferate slanderous propaganda with treacherous consequences. Fake news is dominating the field of social media journalism in 21st century. India’s social media penetration has witnessed a major increase over past five years.In the context of digital revolution, digital issues are majorly transforming the societies and fake news is a dark side of it. The social society grapples to recognise between post-truth and truth. This study analyses the perilous effect of social media fake news on Indian societies from the survey data of online sample. It looks into how most Indians believe fake news impacts society. Survey reveals that majority of Indians believe fabricated news creates confusion and say that most political stories followed by social narrative are made up and shared as truth. Study shows the blueprint of online platforms are indispensable to fake news with Facebook being the most susceptible and then WhatsApp. It concludes that fake news has resulted in numerous hazardous effects shepherd by lynching and followed up by polarisation. Social media platforms must bear fare share of responsibility and solitary, initiatives will prove to be futile and likely to fall short while a collective effort within the public domain, social platforms and initiatives from government can help combat fake news