by Dr. Ahmed Raza 29 May 2021
A new foundation for social media and journalistic independence seems to be strengthened legally after the recent Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order against social media clampdowns by the state governments and police departments over individual’s use of Facebook, Twitter, etc. during the ongoing wave of the pandemic to seek medical help or administrative attention by sharing information about scarcity of beds, oxygen, medicines, ICU, ventilators, ambulances, etc. in both government and private hospitals. The second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in India needs to be viewed very seriously by the government, health administration, health sector industries, etc. as a large number of unfortunate incidences of fatalities, shortages of beds and medicines, oxygen supply as well as coordination gap among the agencies, etc. were reported by the social media platform. Though the existing state governments have always questioned the authenticity, reliability, and fact of the reporting by social media, several states remain intact in achieving the number one position among the Covid-19 management state. Even, few of the states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra have come forward strongly by booking various cases against the citizens who tried to seek help during their emergencies hours applying social media, citing a case of spreading misinformation about the availability of the resources into the hospitals that led to creating a panic situation in the society. Now onwards, exposing grievances or asking for any emergency help through social media at ‘mouse click’ speed during Covid-19, emergencies, or any natural disaster-like situation amounts to be a legal right after the supreme court order. At the same time, we cannot abscond social media freedom in the name of the right to freedom as manipulation in social media has undoubtedly contributed to other sensitive issues in our society such as political polarization, increasing the crime of mob lynching, triggering communal conflict, communalism through hate speech, converting nationals to anti-nationals, etc. This paper tried to explore the possibilities of social media reforms following the legal provision, right to freedom, right to privacy, right to life etches, which must be taken as a balanced approach while dealing with social media reform in India. India has emerged as the seventh-largest market for social media sites as it provides an opportunity to every citizen to discuss everything over the sites and fix their views.
The first political experiment in India could be associated with BJP, which mainly focussed on social media campaigning during the 2014 elections to grab the minds of youth, which led to a grand victory of BJP over the Congress party. Over the years, the usages of social media from every section of society has appeared to be like an unguided missile that always poses a great threat to our society in terms of sovereignty, security, secularism, unity, diversities, privacy, etc. Hence, anticipation for social media reforms in India deserves to be indispensable for the government. The two models of social media reforms provide a balanced approach among several rights: freedom of expression, the right to access information, the right to privacy, etc.
Social media: the need for a state regulation
Social media contents are expected to be a publishable or pubic portal under the freedom of speech and expression conferred under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Indian constitution. However, a large number of incidences of misuse of social media platform by the citizens, political parties, social activists have been seen who always remained intact in expressing their views against security, sovereignty, and integrity of the state, public order, contempt of court, incitement of an offense, decency, and morality. Such freedom of expression always deserves to be formal censorship as social media never gives a freehand tool for anyone. The role of social media in increasing the hatred and inhuman crime of mob lynching has appeared in our society during the last few years. Social media has also been misused to contribute to communal violence by spreading fake, fabricated, and manipulated messages and videos. In 2012, many states of India including Karnataka and Pune became an eyewitness of migration of northeast students and people from the southern states due to instigation of erroneous propaganda through social media. Converting national or intolerant people to anti-nationals has become a common social media platform by tempering the original videos, pictures, and message before uploading into the social media sites. Hence, asset a narrative against the targeted people. Such misinformation and unlawful activities amount to be the consequences of social media platforms used as a freehand tool in the hands of citizens, political parties, etc. The constitutional provisions must formally regulate that.
Social media: need a free from state regulation.
The government cannot formally censor social media content on many accounts, such as posting critical views on policies, governance models, and individual life issues during emergency hours. The Chief Justice of Tripura High court broadly remarked that posting on social media was tantamount to a “fundamental right” applicable to all citizens as the police had booked a man who was earlier arrested over a social media post against the union government policies. On the other hand, there must be full freedom to all citizens for exposing the mal-administration, asking help from anyone during emergencies or natural disasters if posting restricted to polices, governance, health, and such issues associated with a right to life of an individual. For the last few years, social media has emerged as one of the most important instant relief mechanisms during natural disasters and Covid-19. Hence social media regulation must be brought under the right to life as enriched in our constitution. Many life-threatening incidences have been experienced for the last decade in which social media acted as a quick informer to the authorities if an individual life amounted to be at high risk. The first instance of such an event occurred in the Uttrakhand floods, in which tweeter has played a vital role in helping the people. At the same time, in 2015, another natural disaster of Cyclone in Chennai, social media in the form of application of Facebook has acted by starting ‘Safety-check’ through which people can tell their near and dear ones regarding their safety.
To conclude, it could be argued that social media has appeared to be a life-line for those who belong to poverty, needy people, remote area during the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 pandemic as life-saving requisitions kept on hitting the social media platform, making informed the concerned authority that led to timely disposal of the requisitions from government agencies, civil societies, NGOs, etc. Hence, it’s high time to think of social media reform rather than social media regulation regarding its relevancy to society.