Fake or Real??

Have you heard about fake news? Fake news consists of deliberate misinformation spread via online social media. It is written and published with the intent to mislead to damage an agency, entity, or person to grab the people attention.

Ashwin Palaparthi founded Fakopedia.com, a digital news channel to fight against fake news and to give exact news for people. Ashwin was in the city on Tuesday to create awareness and educate people about fake news through fakopedia.com. Speaking with The Hans India, Ashwin said how we can identify the fake news and what steps we must implement to reduce it.

Ashwin was born and brought up in Hyderabad. He began his life as a DTDC Courier Franchisee and later he fell in love with computers and worked as an IT professional. Then he quit IT industry and now he is doing music for theatre in Mumbai.

Sharing about what driven him to start Fakopedia.com, he said “Much of India’s false news is spreading through WhatsApp. A recent example of newly released Rs 2000 note would contain GPS tracking Nano-chip, which could locate bank notes hidden as far as hundreds of feet below the ground.

By knowing this news, I opened the RBI site and got to know that the news was fake. Like this there is lot of fake news spreading on social media. News like this is getting circulated very freely and frequently. Even the most educated, including the experts like media personnel become victims to fake news. Then I decided to make aware people about it and started Fakopedia.com with four of my friends,”

Ashwin said that the process of ‘Reverse Image Google Search’ is the first and best step to cross-check disturbing photos being circulated. “Recently there was a fake news about Mumbai Chakala Metro Bridge collapse on August 30, 2017, floods! Some posts on Facebook shared old images of the mishap along with a current video of the frenzy that occurred due to the flooding to depict a spine-chilling image. By using the Reverse Image Google Search we found that the actual incident occurred on 4 September 2012 and not during the recent August 2017 floods,” shared Ashwin.

Ashwin said that their focus is to find fake news which causes damage to the society. More than 6000 people have been subscribed for Fakopedia WhatsApp number.
Fake News is dividing people, jeopardizing national interest, integrity, peace, causing enormous damage to society.

“Today, people and organisations are fighting a never-ending battle for clicks, likes, and shares. Everybody wants to be at the top of their game, they want to be seen and heard. With all this clamour there is bound to be chaos. To add to the tumult are instigators, adding fuel to fire. They intentionally deceive the naive by spreading the inaccurate or fabricated news. Our beliefs and human biases play a vital role here. We are more susceptible to the fake news when it matches our own beliefs. We tend to accept even outrageous content if it is consistent with our convictions. Our biases are another deciding factor that effects our ideology,” He added.

Ashwin and team have worked on well over few hundred fake news stories and revealed the truth.

“It requires extensive online research and fact-checking to ensure that it is not fake news. Need to cross-check facts than rushing the news. Flash, flash news must be consumed slowly. People must use their discretion before forwarding messages by mail or on WhatsApp, retweet, etc. There are multiple techniques to identify fake news. We have Artificial Intelligence programme which will filter out possible fake news every day. Sometimes we need to investigate about an issue to confirm whether it was 100 percent fake or not,” he informed.

He concluded, “Police, IT, Media, PR, Press Information Bureau, Directorate of Information and Public Relations professionals must form a team to advise public what is fake and what is not.”

You can also report fake news to Fakopedia’s WhatsApp number 9892050005.