Social Media and a prescription for Fake News.

"Great power comes with great responsibility", certainly don't know who originally said this statement. However, I do remember it was in spider man movie. This holds true in the modern world and increasingly becoming more relevant as the world is experiencing technological breakthrough at the pace which was never imagined before. 


Computing technologies and internet is about to embark on the Forth Industrial Revolution and as it is being rightly said that, Data is new oil. Once fossil was revolutionary it made things possible in various was it was used in war to lit fire on water, it made transportation accessible to masses as their own personal luxury, it was even used to dictate world politics. But in the end whole world is at risk of sever climate change which threatens the very existence of life as we know it. When it went out of the hand? I think that the changes were so subtle and minute that it could be never felt and problem became so serious.

On the similar line we have social media such as facecbook, twitter, instagram etc. All these have given voice to the masses, now people can voice their opinion in most effective way. With this revolution, people feel empowered in various senses. Any movement can become mass movement or we can say viral. But this is a great power it comes with own responsibility. Earlier when media houses and print media introduced any content it was filtered by the way that it do not offend any individual, group or belief. However, with this revolution we have lost this careful consideration. 

But proper scrutiny is not a problem, the real problem is Fake News and Fake User Id(s). Have you ever heard that some one distributed a fake news paper or some fake channel is being aired ? I never have, this is the main issue; These are relatively new concept and we have absolutely no experience in dealing with such issue. The only mechanism that is instituted by Information Technology Act,2000 (section 66A), where one can be penalized if found in indulging in act of initiating offensive content. But what if our low tech police officials failed to detect source or the person responsible for Fake News, In this scenario no one is guilty and world is pretty happy. 

Governments are not concerned about this, that's why there is no regulation on social media and their practices. Everybody whosoever has a bank account knows about KYC guideline and everyone has to go through it. Why? because it helps in curbing corruption, money laundering, terror financing. Then there must be some KYU (Know your user) guidelines shall be there.

The idea of KYU:

1. If one want to sign up for the social network then they can apply on the website. Later their account will be active only when they complete their documentation like submitting correct ID and address proof and working contact number. Maintaining authenticity of these user accounts shall be the responsibility of the Social Network Companies. If they fail, heavy fine will be levied upon them as is the case with the banking companies.

2. Next step is for the user, One must act responsibly and if fails to respond as intended, then one must be stripped of facility of posting new messages for some times. It is the responsibility of the person who shares the message on the internet and must be held accountable for that. This provision will force the reckless user to self regulate and will inculcate the habit of investigation before 
passing it further. This will also add up in the knowledge of the user they will understand the real issue then will help the community to generate a quality opinion. Opinion is life blood of the democracy. If opinions are not up to the quality then it will rot the democracy.

Hence such guideline will remind people that great power comes with great responsibility. People must learn to act responsibly, it is in their best interest.

This is my opinion don't forget to add up yours.