 district of Kunnur in Kerala witnessed a plethora of fake news incidents. From hyping the entire Nipah virus outbreak to claiming vaccination as harmful, which actually deterred many parents from getting their children vaccinated. That’s when an IAS officer from that district, Mir Mohammed Ali started an initiative called Satyameva Jayate. Under this initiative, training will be given to high school students to identify fake news, inculcate the need to question the authenticity of information they receive, understand the psychology behind people sharing information, introduce them to concepts like filter bubble and click bait. He started by training 150 teachers who will pass on the training to the students. They were also urged to Google and look up for authentic news sources. He further states that he wants the students to teach their parents as well, who are the ones easily gullible and forward messages without verification. This is happening around the world, where the educators are adopting a curriculum which teaches kids to distinguish facts from fiction. The curriculum was designed by an NGO called New Literacy Project which includes 12 lessons on fake news.
Sure, we are doing our bit to curb this menace, but there is a lot more India can learn from countries around the world. For instance, Malaysia has a law against fake news which makes it punishable and imposes a fine upto $1, 23,000 for the same. Germany fines social media networks if they fail to remove hateful posting and fake news. While France’s media legislation will soon see a complete overhaul in their media legislation. Compared to these stringent measures, we clearly need to up our game.