The Beginning of the End of Fake News

By Washington Post

(Reporter- Navyaa Singhal, Photographer- Vishwam Khandelwal)

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The UN committee of Information, included a total of 19 delegates. The committee started with an ice breaking session between the Executive Board and delegates. This was continued with instructions from the Chair about the agenda. This sessions ended with a discussion about the General Speakers List (GSL) and the rules and time constraints for each session.

The committee proceedings began with the GSL where the delegates gave their country’s stand on the agenda. Many countries have taken initiatives to stop the spread of fake news and started charging fines regarding the same. For example, the Delegate of India claimed that Whatsapp has introduced the “Checkpoint Tipline” to check if the messages shared are fake. In Japan, the only website that people use to read the news is ‘yahoo.japan’, the reason for this is that the public does not trust the media. Furthermore, Apple claimed that they removed questionable websites, took international initiatives, and also started teaming up with organizations to stop the spread of fake news. Not only have countries and government policies taken initiatives to combat fake news, but also companies like Whatsapp, Facebook, Google. The spreading of fake news is against the people's privacy, tackles citizens rights, increases security risks, as well as affects the people’s career.

During session, the various solutions brought up to stop the spread of fake news and Misuse of data such as campaigns, media literacy, strict laws, fines for people spreading fake news, and most importantly educating people to understand what is fake and what is not and the ability to be able to identify whether the information comes from a trustworthy source. The representatives of several countries are willing to work together and with organizations to reduce the spread of fake news and anti-social events.

The committee ended on a happy note, with two unmoderated and moderated caucuses each. It was a day full of fun and exciting debates and rebuttals by all the delegates. Eagerly waiting for the next committee sessions tomorrow!