A new study conducted by IIT Delhi suggests that it may be effective to combat the phenomenon of fake news by building decentralized models to identify fake information and counter it with true information and facts, or as the paper calls it — anti-rumour. The study was conducted by the department of computer science and engineering at IIT Delhi. The authors studied several models to prevent the spread of fake information and news via social media and messaging applications. It attempts to offer possible solutions for combatting rumours and fake news with three different models. The models are based on the intentional spread of counter-information to fight the specific false information, either by an authority, a regulatory body, a watchdog, and so on or by enlightened citizens who spread anti-rumour on a voluntary basis. Devolution of information check Notably, the paper says that in all the models studied, once a rumour is detected (no matter in which ways) due to fast growth power of social networks, the spread of fake information can be controlled. The paper has concluded that decentralized models — the beacon model and the neighbourhood model — are more effective than a delayed model, which banks on the probability that a relevant authority might identify a rumour days/weeks after it has started spreading that than combat it with anti-rumour. A delayed model involves an authority possibly identifying rumours days or weeks after it began spreading. There may be a time-lag during which the misinformation has spread fast and…
