In an era defined by hyper-connectivity, where news travels faster than it can be verified, truth finds itself shackled – battered by waves of misinformation, disinformation, and the relentless pursuit of virality. Social media, once lauded as a great tool of democratizing and a beacon of participatory discourse, has increasingly turned into a theatre of manipulated narratives and curated outrage. This crisis is no longer peripheral. Fake news has ballooned into a parallel stream of content, with self styled commentators, anonymous influencers, and ideological echo chambers constructing elaborate but fictitious storylines. Platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram have become fertile breeding grounds for doctored content, hastily consumed and uncritically shared.

The consequences are profound and far-reaching. Take, for instance, the recent Indo-Pak tensions. In the volatile aftermath of border skirmishes, social media was flooded with unverified videos, mis-captioned photographs, and exaggerated accounts of military encounters. Emerging technologies like deep-fakes and AI-generated images have, in some instances, added........

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