News could have shades of truth, half-truth and untruth. Fake news these days have become a catch-all term which discredits even genuine stories. It could be used for anything we do not agree with. Sometimes, there are inadvertent errors. That does not make anything fake. These could be admitted, and corrected.

By definition, fake news is deliberately created, and it is known that it is not true. It is a deliberate lie or a half-truth circulated with the intention to mislead, or worse cause harm to a section of people or a community.

Some fake news is frivolous jokes and nonsense. This is innocuous. But at the other extreme, fake news can take lives. All fake news has side effects.

The misinformation in fake news could be of many types — satire, false connection where headlines or visuals do not support content, misleading content, false content with wrong context, impostor content, manipulated content and fabricated content.

According to Colin Crowell, VP Global Public Policy & Philanthropy, Twitter, what people call fake news requires definition. It could sometimes be equated with the news you disagree with. Maybe, the information is inaccurate, but is mistaken as accurate information. The concern is malicious disinformation where the intent is to deceive. Twitter may not be in a position to decide truth and falsehood. Journalists have a role of being truth tellers and holding public officials accountable.

In 2016 US elections, the foreign interference in social media such as Facebook was largely advertising based. It was not so on Twitter. Automation was used, which was sometimes difficult to detect because of the use of VPNs: virtual private networks, and data centres . They have taken steps to curb malicious automation. Sometimes it is not clear whether an account is automated or not.

They challenge those accounts. They prompt the account holder to type a code or their phone number. If it is a robot, it will hit that like a speed bump.

The accounts are removed from search results. Visibility thus gets down-ranked. Their tweets get diminished visibility. They are then in a mood to respond positively to the challenge posed by Twitter. Every week, they challenge 6.4 million accounts. They are warding off 5.3 lac suspicious logins a day. There are signals of repeat violators. They have removed roughly 9.5 lac accounts over a period of 3 years.

Twitter does not look at the content of the tweets while attacking. They look at the signals associated with the behaviour of the account. A political party could ask its supporters to retweet and spread the message. As long as this is done by genuine people and not by bots, it is not against the Twitter rules. Whether such twitting is paid or not, they never know. Even if paid, it is not against the rules.

The term fake news conceals as much as it reveals. It could range from deliberate disinformation to poor quality of news. Media literacy is not where it should be. The worst of fake news often spreads at such a fast rate on social media. It spreads through chat apps because it often confirms bias, taps into pre-existing social tensions and because users do not verify the information they come across with other more reliable sources.

There should be attempts to invest in media literacy of the audience. Trained staff should visit schools to improve the young audience’s ability to judge the news it sees as real or fake.

Fairness Doctrine

In the hearing of a detamation case, the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra observed that though media’s freedom is respected, it must act responsibly. The electronic media behaves like Pope. There should be some internal checks on reporting. There is a slide in journalistic standards. For a long time, the Federal Communications Commission in the US upheld what is called a ‘fairness doctrine’. It means all sides of an important issue has to be given a reasonable hearing.

This doctrine was held for decades. It was also upheld by the US judicial system. It was abandoned in 1987 under President Reagan. It resulted in unscrupulous and partisan news media.That led to fake news. India has to learn from this. Either media adopts internally something else to fairness doctrine, or allows such a doctrine to be imposed on it externally, there is going to be a breakdown of democratic norms and the possibility of restrictions on freedom of expression that have nothing to do with fairness. Indian media has already created News Broadcasting Standards Authority but it is not effective. It will have to be replaced by something more effective.

India is almost banned cryptocurrencies, had it not been restored by the Supreme Court but this is pretty myopic. India should be open to the possibility of using the cryptocurrencies for international payments bypassing the dollar.

Bitcoins were mines independently with no control of the central bank. Therefore, these are unstable currencies. Besides, the maximum quantity of bitcoins produced is predetermined. All crypocurrencies are not the same. Stablecoins is a sub-group of cryptocurrencies which are linked to fiat currency managed by banks or other reliable entities.

Such currencies can be used for settling international payments without involving US counterparty — without using dollar. Keynes had suggested on behalf of Britain Bancor but the idea was abandoned. US derives its strength as dollar is the principal currency of world trade. US can borrow as much as it wants, and repay by printing dollar bills. Other countries do not have this advantage.

Dollar has been used as a weapon by the US, e.g. the sanctions on Iran. If any nation transacts with Iran, it will not have access to dollar payment network. No bank can afford this.

The solution is to have a payment system allowing transactions not involving US counterparty. These transactions will be settled in currency other than the dollar. Of course, there could be settlement in Euros, or Yen if you have these in reserve. Otherwise, dollar is the only alternative.

Actually, side-stepping the dollar is a political decision. Technically, the solution could be a blockchain-based currency.

Banning cryptocurrency is akin to not participating in this.

Caution is to be exercised while using cryptocurrency that there is no money laundering and heists.

It will facilitate cross-border remittances by the Fintechs. Instead of banning, India should tie up with others to create cryptocurrency and be a part of settlement system. A new stablecoin can be linked to a basket of currencies. A credible body should regulate the basket and linkage.

WhatsApp, a messaging platform, has 1.6 billion monthly active users (MAU). There are other players to compete in this space — Telegram and Signal. Telegram is an encrypted service, and has 200 million users globally. It is gaining followers in India. In September 2019, it has 2.9 crore users in India.

Telegram was founded by Russian brothers — Nikolai and Pavel Durov in 2013. Pavel supports it financially and ideologically. Nikolai is the tech driver. Pavel is Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg who founded Facebook-like VKontakte in 2006. Out of this earnings, he invested $250 million into Telegram. In 2016, Telegram hit 100 million monthly active users (MAUs). The App development team is based in Dubai.

Telegram is patromised by small and medium enterprises and startups for marketing and customer engagement. Edtech firms too use it. It is used for influencer marketing. It has unique application programing interface (API). It has channels in its broadcasting with no limits on number of members. WhatsApp supports 256 contacts in each broadcast list. It has a self-destructing messaging feature called secret chats. Telegram offers up to 1 GB of uninterrupted data transfers between the users, whereas WhatsApp file sizes are limited. It can be accessed from any device. SuperGroups can accommodate up to 1 lac users. Telegram groups mask phone numbers of users. WhatsApp lack this feature.

Though the features are high on convenience, there are concerns about piracy especially in content of entertainment and education material. The platform could threaten book-publishing and content companies. The secret chat feature could be abused.

There is convergence of media, telecom and technology. Rupert Murdoch sold 21st Century Fox to Walt Disney in 2017. The entertainment market was being redrawn. There were bigger competitors such as Apple, Amazon, A T & T and Alphabet or Google. Netflix was acquiring audience by investing heavily. Cord cutting affected the pay TV business. Thus Murdoch’s move was right.

India embraced internet in 1995 and since then it has grown at rapid pace. Today India has become one of the largest video consuming countries of the world. India has vast TV audience and online watching audience. OTT channels are the biggest gainers. Unlike US where OTT is through cable, in India it is through telecom. Broadcast TV is 45 per cent of India’s total media and entertainment market.

India’s top media firms are Disney Star, Sony-Viacom 18, Google, Times Group and Zee Entertainment. Sun TV is a star firm in the south.

There are three types of digital advertising fraud — traffic frauds boosting impressions or activity through bots, misrepresentation fraud where information is falsified by domain spoofing, ad injection and device hijacking and attribution fraud where a fraudulent party claims credit for conversions it did not influence.

Ad frauds are detected after the marketers undertake a review. Ad frauds can be identified in real time by deploying third party solution provider. There should be budgets for preventing ad fraud.

Online deception assumes many forms. There are fake likes and comments on advertising. Publishers and websites have an array of tools.

Click farming uses low paid workers to click banner ads. They create larger fan and follower communities in social media.

Bots are used to create false ad impressions on cost per impression campaigns. They carry out domain spoofing and copy reputed websites. They create ad inventory on these spoofy sites to gain advertiser’s attention.

Bad key word targeting is done by media companies who ask clients to bid for low value keywords to get cheaper clicks, when in reality they are actually getting irrelevant or fraudulent clicks.

Hidden ads is placing more than one ad in a designated high value slot so that every click or impression gets counted twice.

Ad injection happens on the media side where a bot or a programme is fraudulently placing ads on a site without permission.

The ultimate aim is to gain ad spends without having viewership. Marketing professionals in ad agencies and companies turn a blind eye towards false metrics.

There are companies which help prevent the fraud. But there are workarounds around these tools.

Bad ads have become a global problem. In 2018, Google identified and terminated one million bad advertising accounts. Nearly 7.3 lac publishers and app developers were terminated from Google ad network.

In digital media, there are increasing ad frauds. The needle is, however, shifting. The impact of ad frauds depends on how advertising reach is measured. All advertising cannot be measured the same way. Brand campaigns should be measured first on qualitative metrics, and then quantitative. However, while measuring ROI based on ad spends, first quantitative metrics are used, and then qualitative.

Ad frauds are rampant in banking and fintech, entertainment and gaming and healthcare and pharma. Here the focus is on new customer acquisition.

Those who generate fraudulent numbers could be blacklisted. It is necessary to stick to top platforms since they have safety checks.

Advertisers too want instant results, and are likely to be taken for a ride by organisations providing fraudulent impressions.

Impression (also called a view or ad view) refers to a point at which an ad is viewed once by a visitor or displayed once on a web page. The number of impressions of a particular ad is determined by the number of times the particular page is located and loaded. Smart advertisers are shifting from impressions served to impressions viewed.

Counting impressions without taking viewability into account is akin to the advertiser often paying for inventory which is not seen by real people. Viewable impressions are a superior metric.

Advertisers can use the tools to track metrics in real time.

Walt Disney established Disney in 1923. It created many cartoon characters and their movies. It has now taken over Twenty First Century Fox. This company was established on 31st May, 1935. It is one of the world’s biggest movie making companies. It has produced Avtaar, Titanic, Life of Pie, and many such successful movies. Whatever successful movies have been released in the last 80 years, 60 per cent of them have been produced by 21st Century Fox. It has also merged Blue Sky, American Dead, Sky TV Net Geo with itself. It has spread into TV, radio, music, sports news and broadcasting. It has become a 3 lac 66 thousand crore company. Disney bought it for 4 lac 97 thousand crore. That has given Disney the rights over thousands of movies, serials, biopics, songs, books, channels, broadcasting companies, and studios.

Disney has also acquired ABC Television group, ESPN, Lucas Film Ltd, Marvel Entertainment and Pixar. By acquiring ABC, Disney has established itself in TV. It has leading 25 networks under it. ESPN monopolises sports. Lucas has made Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It is also a big movie producing company. It has produced hundreds of movies in the last 47 years.

Marvel Entertainment is considered as the factory of superheroes. Their last movie was the highest grosser Avengers’ Endgame. Pixar has taken many Oscars. It has revolutionalised cinema techniques. It has enriched animation.

Disney now controls 70 per cent of entertainment industry. In the list of 10 Biggest Grossers in the world, eight movies are from Disney. Only two are from others — Jurassic World and Furious 7. It gives an idea of how robust Disney has become.

In India Fox has invested into Star Network. Star has now become Disney property. Fox also had stake in Tata Sky, Airtel Digital, Dish TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV. Many movies have been made by Fox Star Studio India — Slumdog Millionnaire, Sanju, MS Dhoni — the Untold Story. Hotstar network is also with Fox Star. Hathway and Asianet has also Fox stake. Cricket shown on TV by Star now will enrich Disney. Disney thus has captured a large portion of Indian media space. It has screened Avengers, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Conjuring, and Fantastic Beast. In entertainment, it has occupied movies, serials, sports and news to the extent of 60-70 percent.

Predictive analytics is the process of taking data and predict what a person or group of people are likely to do in future. It is digital fortune telling, backed by solid data science.

Netflix has prediction algorithm. It is based on information on what you have watched, the ratings you have given and other behaviour metrics. Netflix recommends movies and shows that you may like. It is big business. Netflix encourages improvements of this algo by declaring a prize for anyone who can improve it by 10 percent. Amazon’s suggestions is another example. Amazon records what you click on, what you look at other sites and where your orders are delivered and more. It knows what you want before you order.

predictive analytics has the capability to go beyond what a user is likely to buy. Location data is likely to suggest where a user is likely to be. You may receive discount codes of restaurants right at the time when you are there.

Facebook is fearing resistance from the regulatory authorities ever since it has announced its intention to introduce Libra, its cryptocurrency. To induce credibility, Facebook has set up on independent foundation to manage the whole thing. The USP of cryptocurrency is its blockchain platform consisting of an electronic ledger which can be viewed and validated by many people. It is very difficult to hack it and it provides anonymity.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, but Libra differs from it. Libra proposes to operate against a pool of assets including fiat currencies and precious metals. Libra will be issued against this asset pool at an agreed exchange rate. Libra can be redeemed against that pool.

Libra could be more efficient than fiat. It could facilitate cross-border transfers at lower cost. It could disrupt the global remittance market.

Yet, we have to be cautious. There was a crypto fraud of OneCoin floated by Dr. Ruja Ignatova in 2014. She later employed her brother Konstantin who later played a larger role. She worked for McKinsey in Bulgaria for sometime. OneCoin was more efficient than Bitcoin. It ran exchange and used blockchain. Its mining system was similar to bitcoin. As Bulgaria is EU nation, the exchange accepted many currencies and issued OneCoin but when OneCoin was exchanged, it offered only Euro.

OneCoins were marketed in investor meets where educational kits were sold. These explained how crypto and OneCoin worked. There were tokens in the kits which could be exchanged for OneCoin. Investors were offered commissions in terms of OneCoin tokens to sell these kits. This was a multi-level marketing scheme. The exchange rate was pushed up by such circular system (from 0.5 euros to 38 euros). In reality there was no private blockchain. The apex of the pyramid issued OneCoin at their whims and fancies. It was an amalgom of Ponzi and crypto scheme. It defrauded investors of several billion dollars. It attracted the attention of the regulators. The exchange stopped working, and still the scheme continued operating. Investors were reluctant to complain even after knowing they had been defrauded. They were playing a role in the Ponzi. Dr. Igantova disappeared in 2017. Her brother Konstantin took over. He was arrested in the US in March 2019. Several other founders too were arrested. Authorities recovered some amount in different countries, but only a fraction of $3.7 billion invested initially in it.

Thus unregulated crypto is fraught with risk.

Most widely used cryptocurrency is not Bitcoin, but Tether the trading volume of which is about $21 billion per day. It is 18 per cent higher than that of Bitcoin on a monthly basis.

Tether’s management is not known. It is issued by a Hong Kong-based private company. The same proprietors own the crypto exchange. How the supply of Tether is increased or decreased is not known. It is also not known how much of the supply is covered by fiat reserves. Tether is not audited independently.

In countries where crypto exchanges are banned, people can buy Tethers by paying cash on the counter. Tether is out of reach of the US Government. Most crypto exchanges still do not have bank accounts, and cannot hold dollars on behalf of the customers. They use Tether as substitute. People use Tether without realising they are using it. They may be under the impression that they have dollars in a bank account somewhere.

Facebook proposes to launch its own cryptocurrency in the first half 2020. It is called Libra. A subsidiary called Calibra is also set up by Facebook to offer digital wallet to save, send and spend Libra. Calibra will be connected to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook has tied up with 28 partners in the project which include household names such as MasterCard, Visa, Spotify, PayPal, eBay, Uber and Vodafone as well as venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz.

There are going to be transactions between consumers and business around the globe. The unbanked consumers will access financial services for the first time.

It is not clear how the regulatory authorities will deal with the largely unregulated world of cryptocurrency. Facebook hopes that it can bring global regulators to the table by publicising Libra.

Libra is going to be decentralised currency. The origin of cryptocurrency goes back to Austrian economist of the 19th century Fredrich Hayek.

Hayek was of the opinion that just as planning and management should not be centralised, the same way currency also should not be centrally controlled. What is currency after after all? It is a means of exchange recognised by the government. Currency is backed by a large institute, e.g. government, central bank etc. It is legal tender when backed by the government. Hayek was opposed to the central authority controlling the currency. He wrote a book on Denationalisation of Money. This concept could be translated into reality in this Internet age. Satoshi Nakamoto and blockchain thus brought Bitcoin. This happened in the last 10 years.

There are two distinguishing features of cryptocurrency — technology and decentralisation. In an ideal situation, any cryptocurrency is totally decentralised. That means it is not backed by any central authority. It is a trustless system. There is no institutional backing, but the trust is reposed in the system. In case of Bitcoins, the trust is in the blockchain technology.

Facebook’s Libra is different in the sense that by replacing the central authority, there is Facebook which may play a similar role. This fear is not misplaced. Facebook’s privacy policy is under attack. Unknowingly, Libra may empower Facebook to exert social control. Facebook is taking the first step to exert social control by introducing Libra into the digital payment world.

What AOL has done for Internet, Facebook might do for cryptocurrency. It may facilitate the use of cryptocurrency on a massive scale.