Impact of Fake News on the Society 30 January, 2021   

If I like a post of a medical equipment, it pushes me to buy a product. Will I spend thousands of rupee for an ineffective product? Will this product interact with other medications I take? If I eat nothing but bananas for 12 days, obviously this can affect my health. It’s far from a balanced diet!

Will I stop going out because news of dangerous criminals who are in my town? Will I have insomnia? Will my quality of life decrease?

False rumors that target specific individuals can have major consequences. These individuals may be harassed on social media, and targeted by insults and threats that sometimes have real-life impacts. You must never rely only on non-validated information circulating on social media to decide that a person is guilty. This is one of the reasons why the media has spoken so much about the fake news phenomenon, because this is an important democratic issue. In short, the impacts are very real and we must avoid sharing fake news. There are many websites which sift fake news from the real. It is better to have a look at them in case you doubt the veracity of a particular news.