FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Prof. Farida Khanam is an author, editor, translator, public speaker and former professor of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Among her books are ‘A Simple Guide to Sufism’ and ‘A Study of World’s Major Religions’. She has translated into English many books authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently the chairperson of CPS International, she is a regular contributor of articles to various publications. Prof. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. She can be reached at hub@thespiritofislam.org FAKE NEWS SPREADING fake news and rumours is a grave offence. Intentional or unintentional circulation of fake news adds to public frenzy and chaos, and causes a situation to go out of control. In these uncertain times, creating and spreading lies through social media has become an organized endeavour. To put a curb on this phenomenon, governmental as well as non-governmental agencies the world over are working to find ways of solving this grim issue. Recently, social media platforms, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, initiated talks to form an industry-wide alliance to tackle fake news on their platforms in India. (Economic Times, February 19, 2020) The proposed alliance, Information Trust Alliance (ITA), will bring together social media platforms, digital publishers, content creators, fact-checkers, civil society actors and academics to spread awareness about fake news and harmful misinformation among netizens through collaborative efforts. The companies are also discussing a possible ‘Code of Practice’ to curb misinformation. The alliance proposes to run public awareness campaigns in schools, colleges and universities, conduct workshops with content creators, and work with academia to find innovative solutions. The Centre’s nodal agency for issuing releases to the public, the Press Information Bureau (PIB), has created a fact checking unit in order to tackle fake news on social Islam takes a harsh stand against the spread of lies, calumny and rumours.