Part 2 of our discussion on FakeNews, hosted with support from Mint. Part 1 | Part 3 "We have to recognise the fact that Fake News is created to accrue power in some form or the other," Saikat Datta, Former Editor (National Security) at HT Media, said, speaking at MediaNama's discussion on Fake News, Rumors & Online Content Regulation, was categorical that Fake News is not new. "For decades, the Americans have had a doctrine called the doctrine of information operations. Where did they get it? Fake news goes 2000 years back. The spread of religion started with fake news", he added, saying "It becomes a question of faith and belief. Unless we recognise that, there is nothing that you can do to address fake news." "If you think some regulation of content or platforms will work," Datta continued, "(it won't) because it is in the national charter of various agencies, even in India, to actually produce fake news. From the fields that I'm familiar with, it used to be called Information Operations, or disinformation campaigns. This is done by the state." Political parties and information ops The difference now, is that political parties in India are also using Fake News to influence citizens: "We spoke to a couple of political parties and their social media cells," Venkat Ananth, staff writer at The Ken said, "and we found that there is a trial and error approach, as to what works. They said it's a combination of the message and the…
