Letters to The EDITOR: Fake news and misinformation on social media

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Fake news and misinformation on social media

Online social networks (OSNs) are rapidly growing and have become a huge source of all kinds of global and local news for millions of users. However, OSNs are a double-edged sword. Although they offer great advantages, such as unlimited easy communication and instant news and information, they can also have many disadvantages and issues. One of their major challenging issues is the spread of fake news. Fake news identification is still a complex unresolved issue. Furthermore, fake news detection on OSNs presents unique characteristics and challenges that make finding a solution anything but trivial. On the other hand, artificial intelligence (AI) approaches are still incapable of overcoming this challenging problem. To make matters worse, AI techniques such as machine learning and deep learning are leveraged to deceive people by creating and disseminating fake content. Consequently, automatic fake news detection remains a huge challenge, primarily because the content is designed in a way to closely resemble the truth, and it is often hard to determine its veracity by AI alone without additional information from third parties. This work aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic review of fake news research as well as a fundamental review of existing approaches used to detect and prevent fake news from spreading via OSNs.

Barasha Thakuria

Gauhati University

Cultivate reading habits among children

Today's children, especially students, are so busy with their textbooks that they are left with no other choice. Reading a good book during a leisure period has become a rare occurrence. In families, all members are so busy that no one is available to turn off the TV and silence the smartphone, which may be interfering with reading. In those good old days there were neither mobile phones nor reel addiction, but a bedtime reading addiction was the 'real addiction.' Until the late 1990s children grew up on the best of literature available then, namely 'Amar Chitra Katha.' It was truly the immortal pictorial collection of stories from various subjects that increased their mental horizons and indulged them in imaginative and creative thinking. Sadly, most children today are unaware of this book. Nowadays, videos depicting stories virtually capture children's attention, but the learning outcome is just superficial. It is now the collective responsibility of all stakeholders to monitor daily reading and factors influencing reading to develop a reading habit among children. Why not try to create a family environment where we carry a book instead of a phone? Let us remember Austin Phelps's important words: 'Wear the old coat and buy the new book.' Let's all come forward and motivate our children to visit book fairs and expose themselves to good books so they can feel the joy of reading. Reviving children's love for books so they grab them and read them leisurely is the prime responsibility of every conscious member of the society.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati

Picnic season and rising clashes

During the winter months, when picnic outings are in full swing, violent quarrels often break out at many popular picnic spots, and this year too several such incidents have come to light. Picnics are meant to help people unwind, let their hair down, and get away from the humdrum of monotonous daily life. Unfortunately, this very spirit of recreation is often spoiled by a section of people—especially drunk and quarrelsome young boys—who end up picking fights over trifles and turning a pleasant outing into a battlefield.

Time and again, minor arguments snowball into ugly clashes, mainly because liquor flows freely and tempers run high. Instead of soaking in the joy of togetherness, families and children are forced to look over their shoulders. The administration and police cannot afford to sit back and turn a blind eye; they must step up, keep a close watch, and crack down firmly on such unruly behaviour to nip trouble in the bud.

Moreover, liquor consumption at picnic spots should be strictly prohibited, or else untoward incidents are bound to crop up again and again. Many picnic-goers prefer riverbanks, which are inherently risky, and when people are heavily intoxicated, the chances of accidents and even fatalities increase alarmingly. If these issues are not checked in time, the joy of winter picnics will continue to be overshadowed by fear and chaos, turning what should be moments of cheer into scenes of regret.

Dipen Gogoi,

Teok, Jorhat

State-sponsored infiltration

2026 will be very vital for both Assam and West Bengal, as both these states will be going to assembly polls within three months. Interestingly, so far, the main issue of election for both the states appears to be the same. Infiltration of Bangladeshis across the border is the prime issue. The Assam CM and Union Home Minister are accusing West Bengal’s CM of encouraging infiltration for vote bank politics. In response, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is questioning the issue of infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, which led to the Pahalgam mayhem.

After careful probing, we, the bona fide Indians, do agree that besides West Bengal and Assam, infiltration of foreigners is there in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Rajasthan. The only difference is that infiltration of foreigners in West Bengal is state-sponsored, which is not so in the states mentioned above.

Dr. Ashim Chowdhury,

Guwahati