Fake and frightening

👉Rana Ayyub’s case shows how fake news is being created to target individuals👈

Fake news has wreaked damage several times over the last few years. It has whipped up communal frenzy. It has potentially sabotaged elections. Even as governments and social media companies grapple with methods of countering the publishing of fake news, a particularly alarming strain has come into existence recently, in the Rana Ayyub case.

Last week, Ms. Ayyub, a freelance journalist and author of Gujarat Files, a book about the 2002 riots, registered a police complaint in Delhi about personalised fake news that put her in danger. According to her complaint, Ms. Ayyub was alerted by friends that a fake quote accompanied by her photograph was doing the rounds on social media. It was first tweeted by a fake account mimicking a TV channel’s logo. The fake quote went viral and triggered real outrage.

Ms. Ayyub pointed out on her social media accounts that the quote and the account were fake, but this did not do much to control either the virality of the tweet or the damage. Soon, she began to receive death and rape threats. In addition, pornographic videos using morphed images of her began to make the rounds. Her phone number and home address were posted on the Internet. In her complaint to the police as well as media statements, Ms. Ayyub said she is genuinely scared for her life and the well-being of her family.

Several aspects of this case are worrying. Whilst so far, fake news tended to malign whole communities, it wasn’t a weapon to attack a person. Social media users, especially opinionated women, are well acquainted with troll attacks. They often come and go in a span of 24-48 hours, leaving a litter of bilious comments and misogynistic observations in their wake. However, those attacks are often for something the user might have actually said; therefore it can be explained and some kind of background provided in defence. In Ms. Ayyub’s case, neither the original post nor the dog whistle to it was hers.

This is a potential threat to anybody who has an online presence. It has been proven that false news spreads faster and farther than real news. Any attempts at correcting statements that are wrongly attributed to users will find a much more limited audience and once the screenshots reach WhatsApp, there is absolutely no stopping them as they leap from group to group within seconds. The damage to one’s reputation is immediate and impossible to completely reverse.

Social media has now brought us to the point where there could imminently be a baying mob outside our homes, based on absolutely nothing we might have done. The speed of distribution of false news as well as the ease of maintaining anonymity on the Web make it difficult for law-enforcement officers to prevent these attacks or track down perpetrators. Since this is a problem created by technology, its solution too lies in technology. Unless users push digital publishing companies to ensure a trail for every post and eliminate anonymity, incidents like this are likely to escalate.

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