Nowadays content gets generated with a social media users with the internet connection. The users play a large role in what content is created and how it is disseminated. The people tend to trust our networks of friends and family for news and these organic formations are reflected and exacerbated by social media platforms. When people receive news and information through social media, they are less likely to be aware of the source of the information. They are more likely to remember a news source if they receive a link through email, a text, or a news alert. A freedom to access web with an internet availability has raised expectations for real time news and constant entertainment competition among websites and social media. It has resulted in fake news generation. Since social media applications like Facebook & WhatsApp have hundred millions of user, the fake news rapidly get spread across the world. Facebook and WhatsApp have now needs a new Marshall Plan to tackle the crises of bogus information spreading like wildfire to its population of 1.8 billion monthly users. With the market interest, Social Media platforms are get aliened computer algorithms work. They are growing to be ideal platform for propagation of fake news. Most of the fake news stories are looking to make a quick flash.
As we have regulator in print and television media, but we doesn’t have regulator for social media. Freedom of post on social media has leads trend for spreading fake news. Everyone is in hurry to like/share/comment rather than checking the authenticity of the news. People retweet or share an article based on its headline without ever having clicked on it and without ever having actually reading it. This allows misinformation to be seen, accepted, and promoted just as much.
The United States has now reached almost full digital penetration. Approximately 88% of American adults are online, and 85% are getting news from online sources. Almost 75% of American adults are now accessing news on their phones (as compared to 50% a few years ago). Social media is a significant provider of information. An American adults are now getting news information through social media rather than any news organization’s websites or apps. This is the present situation about news information to Americans.
In order to tackle the fake news, content consumers must be better educated so that they are better able to distinguish credible sources and stories from their counterparts. Content creators and content distributors need to adapt their professional norms to new technologies of distribution and better explain these norms to the public and protect them from erosion. Content distributors particularly digital content distributors should engage in practices that minimize the spread of fake news and promote the dissemination of trustworthy, high-quality information. There might be some form of accreditation system for content creators and/or content distributors. Any accreditation system must be designed in a way to avoid it becoming a means of silencing the “little guys” or a means of promoting government approved news. At present, funding incentives favour short-form national news. We need to develop a system that better funds local journalism and deeply researched, long-form journalism. We need to develop legal tools that target methods of information distribution rather than content. Imposing hefty fines like Germany which is considering imposing a €500,000 fine on Facebook if it shares fake news. News and social media companies have a moral responsibility to ensure that they do not misrepresent the facts to their audiences. Actions taken against fake news should not put a curb on right of individual for free speech and expression.
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