Long before the information explosion of the present times, a newspaper in the United States published a six-part series in August 1835 describing detailed sightings of living creatures on the moon supposedly seen through a newly discovered telescope by a fictitious astronomer. Later gaining notoriety as the ‘Great Moon Hoax’, the incident is usually considered as the first concerted misinformation campaign in the age of mass media and still remains as the classic example of what can go wrong if those controlling the media deliberately falsify and distort information either for disrupting society at large or gaining popularity at the expense of mass media ethics.

Moving forward to the present times when a click of a button and digital media algorithms dictate the reach and credibility of information, the issue of misinformation has attained importance not merely because of the reach and scope of media but also due to the potential harm such abuse can cause both to individuals and the society as a whole. With literacy evolving beyond the mere use of alphabets and numbers in everyday life, the penetrative scope of the electronic media, including social media and its ease of dissemination of information has established itself as a double-edged sword to modern lives. As a force multiplier in propagating vital information in a timely and economic manner, digital information platforms serve crucial roles such as lifesavers in natural calamities, health support systems during public health adversities, and even positively impact vital human endeavors such as education, sports, outreach activities and economic activities and trade.

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While the potential for the abuse of the digital information platforms have been well understood and documented, with preventive laws in place, the contemporary craze for Artificial Intelligence as the governing platform of information propagation is developing into a destructive tool at........

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