Experts seek platform governance to combat misinformation

Kathmandu, Jan. 24

Experts and media stakeholders stressed on finding ways to find solutions for platform governance to combat misinformation.

Speaking at the 'Kathmandu Conference on Combating Misinformation' jointly organised by the Central Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (CDJMC) and Centre for Media Research (CMR) Nepal that kicked off in Kathmandu on Saturday, they said the easy access to social media and an absence of any restrictive measures have amplified the risks.

They also recommended that the government, media and civil society organisations should work to spread media and social media literacy to check misinformation. It is necessary to save people from the impact of propaganda and deep fakes.

Dr. Padma Rani, Professor at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India, said false news spreads more quickly than the truth. "Easy and low-cost access to media and simplicity in sharing it across multiple platforms have amplified the spread of misinformation, raising serious concerns about its repercussions," she said.

Research has shown that over 70 per cent of adults use the internet to search for health-related information. Dr. Rani also concluded that more than one-fifth of the YouTube videos carry misinformation, impacting millions of people across the globe.

She also informed that four types of misinformation - fictitious data, false information, false health recommendations and communal in nature targeting the minority community – were observed in India as well as in neighbouring countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Kundan Aryal, Head of CDJMC, said that the spread of misinformation and misuse of AI in creating misinformation and deep fakes should be checked with greater participation of media, education institutions and implementation of national and international codes formulated to combat misinformation.

Transparency, accessibility, regulation and multi-stakeholder participation can be a step towards finding a solution to checking misinformation, he said.

Dr. Bamdev Adhikari, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Tribhuvan University (TU), said that media manipulation of facts is not a recent phenomenon. "It has long been survived in the form of propaganda while the internet-based technology, especially social media, has amplified the phenomenon," he said, mentioning the misuse of media and agenda-setting during the elections in the United States and elsewhere.

The two-day conference is deliberating on various dimensions in misinformation cycle and ways to combat it. It features sessions on the role of media education and media in combating misinformation, interventions to combat misinformation, platform governance solutions for Nepal, and information integrity on climate change.

It also includes interactive exhibitions, student research presentations, as well as applied and theoretical research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, newsroom practice, fact-checking, media literacy and policy interventions applied by countries around the region.

The biennial conference on communication, journalism and media aims to promote South Asian and Nepali scholars' works in communication, journalism and media by providing an academic platform. This is the third edition in the series, earlier two were held in 2018 and 2024. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 January 2026.