India, April 4 -- Serious institutions in the world now seem engaged in fighting misinformation. Governments are regulating, platforms are fact-checking, academics are mapping how false content spreads, and journalists are building verification desks with a rigour they have not applied to anything in years. The World Economic Forum, in its Global Risks Report 2026, has ranked misinformation and disinformation the second most severe risk facing humanity over the next two years, above armed conflict and ecosystem collapse. The mobilisation is real, the alarm is genuine, and the concern is not manufactured. The question at the foundation of the entire enterprise, however, has not been asked. And it is a question prior to every debate about c...