Tips to fight fake news

Deranking fake news sites, starving them of advertising money and media literacy programmes could help tackle the issue better than regulation

Last week the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued and then withdrew guidelines on fake news. It was an ill-thought-out gambit but fake news remains a real danger. It is manufactured in factories full of techies whose only job is to revile, debase and smear some person, party or company. Just discussing the damage it does to democracy or the violence it sparks doesn’t help. The Indian news industry should be putting its heads together to tackle it.

That is where the UK creative industries’ fight against online piracy offers two very critical lessons—follow the money and educate consumers.

In