NEW DELHI: The Centre’s police think-tank has come out with a 40-page manual to help investigators identify fake news, visuals and texts aimed at spreading communal violence, hatred or panic among the people.
The step-by-step guide titled ‘Fake News and Disinformation: How to Spot and Investigate’ prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) for police officers to curb misinformation stated that digital news has brought back and increased the usage of fake news or yellow journalism.
“The extensive spread of fake news has the potential to gravely impact individuals as well as society at large. Therefore, fake news detection in cyberspace has become an important issue for law enforcement agencies,” BPRD said.
The manual warned that messages or website links one receives may contain hoaxes or fake news. Investigators should look for spelling mistakes in such reports as well as whether the headline supports the visuals or captions.
The manual warned that photos, audio recordings, and videos can be edited to mislead the recipient and the investigators should look at ‘trusted news sources’ to verify whether the story is being reported elsewhere.