15/06/2020 - Government Policies

KEY POINTS

·         With weapons and viruses more lethal than ever, words and falsehoods can kill. India has had several instances of mob violence spurred by incendiary material posted online, but it has taken a firestorm over racism in America to lend the idea of social media curbs its urgency.

·         Our Constitution guarantees the right to free speech with a few riders on the spewing of hatred, for example designed for Indian social conditions.

·         If foreign media companies or laws get to determine what can legitimately go online, it would amount to a loss of sovereignty. While US restrictions may follow global principles of civil decency on many matters, they are unlikely to satisfy the specific interests of our democracy.

·         On geopolitical issues, the problem of foreign intervention could be even more acute. Twitter has reportedly shut down 170,000 accounts for spreading narratives deemed favourable to the Chinese government.

·         The platform seems to be under no illusion that it is often deployed as a propaganda tool, but we have little official sway over its allegiances in playing gatekeeper. If our country were to be victimized by hostile agents, there is no saying what its stance would be.

·         To keep social media in consonance with our constitutional values, we need mechanisms of moderation that are answerable to us. The government is looking to employ an external agency to filter content.

·         The rules that are instituted for this need to be framed clearly, and kept open to public scrutiny and democratic discussion. Our twin objectives should be to keep incendiary stuff off the web, while safeguarding our liberty to speak the truth.

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The Social Media platforms has become a vital communications tool through which individuals can exercise their right of freedom of speech and expression. At the same time, it is not an unbraided license giving immunity for every possible use of language and prevents punishment for those who abuse this freedom. 

      Our country has been looking to make social media sites more accountable for content on their platforms through an amendment to the intermediary guidelines of the IT Act, 2000.

     The current situation : the content is being created on one platform – like Tik-Tok — and being circulated on other social media platform  like WhatsApp,Facebook with companies not able to control it citing end-to-end encryption.

>>> India needs sovereign legal framework to govern social media platforms  :

- Because it can cause “unimaginable disruption” to democracy by circulating fake news and hate speeches. "With weapons and viruses more lethal than ever, words and falsehoods can kill". 

- Rules will help in curbing growing threats to “individual rights and nation’s integrity, sovereignty, and security".

- put pressure on social media giants- to deploy better techniques and put more investment into content moderators to proactively and immediately remove false contents on their platforms.

>>> Conclusion :

The present cyber laws of India are neither appropriate nor adequate to check the misuse of social media. Hence, a specific legislation is desirable to regulate it.

Keeping this in mind, it is suggested that the Govt should form a "Committee including technical experts" to look into all the possible facets of the use and misuse of social media and recommend a suitable manner in which it can be regulated.

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