The unlimited freedom made social media platforms are susceptible to misuse,
misinformation, and thus, fake news. In the last few years, social media has
turned out to be a massive player in shaping public discourse in a democratic
space (Marda & Milan, 2018). Though there have been pressures from
policymakers on service/platform providers, nothing concrete has built up
towards accountability of the user or platform proprietors. In India, there has
been a consistent increase of social media users and instances of the misuse
of this medium. This paper seeks to examine how the propagation of fake news
has disrupted the public sphere and possible policies that can be implemented
to curb the plague of fake news. The relationship between various events of
violence reported in India media and the role of fake news in instigating chaos
are discussed in this paper. It also tries to review policies initiatives taken by
various countries, especially in Europe and possible measures which India
could take to restrict the flow of fake news.