A team of researchers at the University College of London is collaborating to help the social media companies, enterprises and governments to take a proactive role in countering the issue of fake issue. A machine learning tool is being developed which will identify the domains that are being created to peddle and promote fake news. The main deliverable for the tool would be to identify the fake news before it can be spread by the social media and various digital and online channels. UC Berkeley and Cornell University are also collaborating on the ML tool project. An early detection system is being developed which will identify the domain which would appear to have malicious intent. Such domains would generally be kept private so as to avoid detection.

In India, UP government has launched a portal to counter the fake news under the Twitter handle of Information and Public Relation Department. There are many cases of fake news being spread across the world. One was regarding the so-called connection between the coronavirus and the 5G network. Another one, which is still being circulated in between many people through WhatsApp states that Covid is a bacterial disease regarding which the WHO is being sued. Similarly, there was a piece of propagating fake news about an Islamic rally which was allegedly being planned to be taken out in Kolkata, while in fact the rally was actually being planned in Bangladesh. Regarding the recently concluded US-election, a fake news template has surfaced which portrays Trump walking out through a door from a dark room. This fake news, using the Time magazine cover stated intelligently including the magazine’s name in the title –“TIME to go” which was directed at Trump. While many have appreciated its creativity, it still escapes the truth, that it is a fake news. Such fake news does not only eat up the attention of the people but also risks triggering conflicts with dangerous ramifications.

The development by the UCL, UC Berkeley and the Cornell University-combined team, hence brings a crucial tool in cyberspace, which is getting populated with countless fake news.