What is actually happening in India on social media platforms?

on

What is actually happening in 
India on social media 
platforms?

Along with Digitalization in India, the number of internet users has increased over 600 million in our country and so is the increase in social media users. Studies show that there are 376 million active social media users in our country out of which Facebook is most users followed by YouTube and WhatsApp. The following table shows the usage of different platforms in India-


Social Media Platform
Internet Users (%)
Facebook
82
YouTube
76
WhatsApp
70
Instagram
64
Twitter
49

India being a huge country with approximately 1.33 billion people may develop uncertain disturbance easily. We know that most of the fake news spreads through these socializing apps. Among them WhatsApp being best replacement for SMS is used majority. These misleading information cause many deaths and turn into national crises.

Some of them are-

1)   COVID-19:
During the start of Covid pandemic in our country, there were many false remedies and desi nuskas spreading on WhatsApp, which caused panic among people. Later 400 scientists were assigned to put a full-stop to such misleading information. Around 10 people were arrested. Even PM Modi has to make an appeal to public on 7th March 2020.

     2)  Citizenship Amendment Act:
When this act came into existence, many protesters of Jamia and Seelampur had to knowledge about the act (In fact they didn’t know its abbreviation). Supreme Court was required to ask the central government to publicize its benefits and objectives. 15,000 social media mediators had to work overtime to identify and destroy such fake news.

     3)  Hindu/Muslim riots:
There are many people who try to disturb the peace between Hindus and Muslims by making false allegations. They fuel such riots by making it a religious agenda. Indian cyber department found 5,000 Pakistani social media handles that were the root cause of such riots.

OTHER EXAMPLES:

  • Recently the Snapchat screenshot of a fake rape talk was merged with a pity matter of boys sharing illicit pictures of other girls in their personal group. This caused a 17 year old’s life.
  • Some men dress as Indian Army Personnel and speak about the higher authorities and our nation, which defames our country.
  • 2013 Muzzafarnagar riots were also caused due to fake videos circulated on whatsapp.


WHY IT IS HAPPENING IN INDIA ON SUCH A LARGE SCALE?

  • One of the main reasons of such spread of false news is due to our “CARELESSNESS”.
  • There are also some people who just want to get everyone’s attention and make themselves or their content go viral which would increase their popularity (this really works).
  •  And then are those who simply forward such information without knowing the actual facts.


WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THIS?

  • Government does their bit during spread of rumors widely. They use internet shutdowns in critical areas. They have also started fake news identification classes in some parts.
  • Google news took a big step by training 8,000 journalists in 7 official languages to spread awareness of fake news and anti-misinformation practices such as fact-checking in 2018. After that fact-checking has become a business in our country.
  • As responsible and educated citizens, we should break the chain of this spread.
  • We should personally do a fact check on our level before forwarding such news.
  • Trust only official pages and sources to consider any news.
  • Every word matters in a news report. So “CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WISELY”.


BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

  • There are media channels which are also available on social media platforms. So let “THEM” be the cause of viral news.
  • You can use social media platforms to spread POSITIVITY and CREATIVITY. Use it to promote yourself.
  • There are many hidden talents in Indians, let them go viral.


THEREFORE, THINK TWICE BEFORE SHARING ANY INFORMATION BECAUSE YOUR VULNERABILITY CAN COST A LIFE.

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