Topics Covered: Cyber security related issues.
Fight ‘fake news’: BRICS Media Forum:
Context:
The Fifth BRICS Media Forum was held virtually recently.
- At the end of the summit, representatives called for the five nations to work together to jointly combat the “virus of disinformation” in the pandemic era.
Concerns associated:
A common thread among members is a growing problem of disinformation or ‘fake news’.
- The news media around the world, especially daily newspapers, and also other forms of the media, have taken a big hit during the pandemic.
- Disinformation is being “transmitted globally at warp speed on the so-called technology platforms, notably Facebook, Twitter, Google, WhatsApp, and Instagram”.
- It was “a major threat not just to the mainstream media but, more importantly, to the lives and well-being of tens of millions of people and the safety and integrity of society as a whole.”
Need of the hour:
The BRICS Media Forum can make a real difference in the fight against motivated and harmful disinformation by:
- Promoting and strengthening relevant media exchanges, workshops, training of journalists, and interactions with technology companies that are willing to work with us to contain and end the menace.
- Rigorous fact-checking and investigation by well-trained teams of journalists and the new type of specialised fact-checking organisations can be supplemented by technological solutions, with the deployment of technologies like AI, in the fight against disinformation, especially large-scale online harms.
About BRICS Media Forum:
China’s Xinhua news agency came up with the idea of a BRICS Media Forum in 2015 to promote media cooperation.
The forum aims to:
- Establish an efficient coordination mechanism among BRICS media.
- Advance innovation-driven media development.
- Gather stronger momentum for the development of BRICS countries through exchange and pragmatic cooperation under the mechanism.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- BRICS- origin, when South Africa joined?
- About the New Development Bank (NDB).
- Which are the NDB funded projects in India?
- Fortaleza declaration is related to?
- What is the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement?
Mains Link:
What is the mandate of New Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank? Examine whether the coming of NDB and AIIB changes the rules of development financing vis-à-vis the western dominated multilateral financing institutions?
Sources: the Hindu.
