PM Modi Sounds Alert On Fake News At Home Ministers' Meet

While addressing Chintan Shivir of home ministers of states via video conferencing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the importance of fact-checking fake news.

He said that fake news has the potential to cause unrest and that there is a need to make people aware of mechanisms to verify messages before forwarding them.

The PM's statement comes at a time when The Wire, a digital news portal has been caught manufacturing fake news.

The Wire, in its report published on October 10, had alleged that the BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya, possesses unhindered power on Instagram, and any post he reports would be taken down.

In order to defend its report, The Wire provided further evidence which was eventually called out as fabricated. Ultimately, the news portal withdrew its report and issued an 'apology'.

A week ago, it had silently withdrawn another story on 'Tek Fog' which alleged that the BJP uses a surveillance app to manipulate trends online and target journalists and other individuals who do not speak in favour of the BJP.

Eventually, everyone The Wire mentioned in their report denied the story without the former fighting the allegations.

Though the story has been withdrawn, but the falsehoods it carried was taken as gospel of truth. The report was referenced by foreign publications, opposition and other detractors of the Modi government to show that India is facing undeclared emergency.

The Prime Minister's warnings on fake news become even more important in this context.