Police in Karnataka have arrested Mahesh Hegde, founder of Postcard News, for circulating fake news about a Muslim youth attacking a Jain monk. He has been charged under IPC sections 153a (wantonly giving provocation with the intent to cause riot) and 120b (for criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, and Section 66 (dishonest act) of the Information Technology Act.
ThePrint asks: Does the arrest of ‘Postcard’ founder show India is finally cracking down on fake news?
It was critical that this mega factory of fake news called Postcard was taken to task
Pratik Sinha
Co-Founder, Altnews
The arrest of Mahesh Vikram Hegde has been long due. Postcard News specialises in spreading fake news against all political parties seemingly opposed to the BJP. But such propaganda exists on both sides of the political spectrum. However, there have also been many instances of fake news on Postcard News that is along communal lines and can incite violence. Postcard has also started a Kannada version of their portal which has been consistently spreading fake news. Because of all the above reasons, it was of utmost importance that this mega factory of fake news be taken to task.
Recently, many including the admin of Postcard News claimed that a Muslim youth had attacked a Jain muni. Altnews ran a counter story, negating the claim. This story led to the arrest of Mahesh Vikram Hegde.
However, his arrest alone doesn’t indicate anything about India’s stand on fake news, especially when no serious debates were conducted when seven people were lynched in Jharkhand over a WhatsApp rumour.
Postcard News itself is a tiny speck in the ocean of fake news. There are hundreds of fake news websites in the country. On top of that, there is fake news propagated on WhatsApp, Facebook etc. In case of websites, we know who their owners are. But in this age of end-to-end encryption, it is almost impossible to find out who began a fake news cycle on a medium such as WhatsApp. Thus, a legal solution will not work and the problem has to be approached in a different manner.
There are two approaches that we can take to counter fake news. One is a short-term response: We try and counter fake news about current affairs by informing people. Platforms like Altnews.in have consistently been making efforts to do just that.
But the long-term solution has to be educative. We need to educate people to enable them to be more critical of the information they receive via social media. They should be able to evaluate its veracity and consider multiple points of view. We can teach school children to be especially sensitive to communally incendiary news and hate speech. Even portals like Facebook need to realise that it can’t just have a blanket policy for all countries regarding what constitutes offensive content. A country like India is more sensitive to culturally offensive content. What we need is auto-regulation by the platforms themselves. A situation where the government needs to intervene and create laws will not be good for anyone.
Laws that fine platforms spreading fake news, like the one in Germany, may not work in India because they can become draconian. It will become a tool to exploit platforms talking against the ruling party, no matter which party is in power.
It is OK to run a site that favours one political party, but using lies and fake news is not okay
Pankaj Jain
Founder, SM Hoaxslayer
At the start, the name they chose was great, I must confess. While the postcard was once our most popular way of communication, adding the word ‘news’ was a bid to allude to the credibility of a media house. Plus, it is running in various languages and has a wide reach, with screenshots propagated through WhatsApp and so on.
Ironically their ‘about us’ section says: “Postcard was conceptualised in May 2016 by individuals who wanted to create a platform not just for countering the lies of mainstream media, but also a portal that showcases positive change in the country. Postcard is founded with the firm belief that Democracy, Innovation and Spirituality shall remain the bulwarks against poverty and ignorance.”
“Countering the lies”, really? Almost every article of theirs is proof that it’s a biased website running to propagate only religious politics, and that too for only one political ideology. They are supporters of the ruling party, so every post is in their favour and against opponents, which is OK too, one may say. But using lies and fake news for this agenda is not OK. Many posts on Postcard have been debunked by fake-news-debunking websites.
Many a time, Postcard News put up quotes of their liking and attributed them to celebrities who never made them, for e.g. Farhan Akhtar, A.R. Rahman etc.
If the Jain muni case is indeed a concoction, yes, the founder’s arrest is a good step towards the fight against fake news. Everyone can exercise their freedom of expression, but using it to spread fake news for hatred and polarising people should be considered an offence.
Has everyone who has ‘hurt sentiments’ been arrested or only the Postcard News founder?
Malavika Avinash
Spokesperson, BJP
At the very outset, the arrest is definitely selective targeting.
Mahesh has been arrested for alleged “hurt sentiments”. Several times, Hindu sentiments have been trashed at will over the past five years and the Congress government has been a mute spectator. That is free speech? An author called Bhagwan has been consistently abusing Hindu gods; has he been arrested? What action has been taken against Prabha Belavangala for her obscene posts about Yogiji?
In the five years of the Siddaramaiah government, we have seen more than 25 political murders. People who support and are members of the RSS/BJP, or other such outfits, have been attacked. Before the Congress government came to power, Karnataka had never seen political murders.
Mahesh and his friends were the voices of dissent against such violence. The government has failed to rein in anti-social and anti-national elements like PFI/KFD who attack young people committed to the cause of Hindu activism. They have been soft on them. Mahesh was a key player in calling the government to account on such issues.
Dissent is being muzzled. And the outrage is conveniently selective. Has everyone who has “hurt sentiments” been arrested? The government knows full well the reach Mahesh and his team have, and have arrested him because the elections are here.
The arrest could make Mahesh Hegde a Hindutva martyr, raise his stature and make his website even more famous
Shivam Vij
Contributing Editor, ThePrint
A motorcyclist accidentally hit a Jain monk on the road. A website published a photo of the monk with injuries on his body, falsely claiming he had been attacked by a Muslim youth.
This sort of thing has become a routine matter on social media. Postcard News is only the most prominent and vicious purveyor of fake news. There are countless others, not to speak of the propaganda that circulates more anonymously on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Bengaluru police have arrested Postcard News editor and founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde. There’s the context of the upcoming Karnataka elections. People like Hegde become especially active in places where communal polarisation could affect elections. By pumping in fake news about “violence by Muslims”, they hope they can make people vote against Muslims, and not for such banal things as development.
His arrest shows India does not need any laws to tackle fake news. He’s been arrested under existing Indian Penal Code provisions that deal with inciting enmity between communities and hurting sentiments. If applied as they should be, they would see many online Hindutva warriors behind bars.
But let us not be unnecessarily optimistic. BJP-ruled states are unlikely to put fake-news champions behind bars. After all, top BJP leaders have been promoting Postcard News on their social media feeds. Many in the BJP are defending Hegde.
This could make Hegde a Hindutva martyr, raise his stature and make his website even more famous. That’s why even non-BJP-ruled states, in case such a thing still exists, are reluctant to put such people behind bars. Is India finally cracking down on fake news? Hardly. Hegde is a prominent exception.
Compiled by Deeksha Bhardwaj, Journalist at ThePrint.
In reference to Shivam’s piece, I think Hegde is already a role model and popular among the audience that is the target of Postcard. Also, the generalisation “Postcard News is only the most prominent and vicious purveyor of fake news. There are countless others…” seem to condone the wrongdoing by Hindutvvaadi portals like Postcard. A critical analysis would reveal that the Saffron camp is the initiator and leader in spreading falsehood on social and main media. But unfortunately, a large part of the main media kept silent on this falsehood phenomenon. It was only Pratik’s late father who first started highlighting this phenomenon through the Truth of Gujarat portal. Now Pratik has added a new dimension to his father’s work with Alt News.
If the govt decides what is fake news and arrests journalists, theprint.in is writing its own arrest warrant. What about FOE?