Opinion

Regulating

social

media

Recently, a minister of the Goa government, on the sidelines of a political topic, told me that some fake news about him was being circulated widely on social media implicating him in a serious offence, as grave as child abuse. The minister while sounding agitated, further told me that the cyber cell or police was helpless as it had no mechanism in place to book culprits of such online fake news. The minister was feeling frustrated that though he knew the perpetrator, he could not book him for the offence. I casually suggested that he, along with his colleagues, should attempt to bring about a policy to regulate fake news on social media, in a bid to deter `online predators.'


My own experience has not been pleasant. A fake account, operating as Sanjeev Naik on Facebook tried to run smear campaign against me during the runup to the 2017 elections. After elections he stooped down to the level of spreading rumours about me joining some political party, A, B, C. Any information about my work relating to the party, posted on FB,  would be trolled by this con artist. He would straight away spin the commentary into something that seems unforgivable and wrong. While our social media team, which knows the identity of the fake ID (a political opponent),  did troll him back, being extremely sensitive to smear campaigns, I blocked the fake ID as a solution. I am not a regular on FB and not part of public WhatsApp groups.


Getting to the context, fake messages circulating on WhatsApp have incited incidents of mob fury across parts of India over the past several months urging the government to send out notices to the Facebook-owned company directing it to take urgent measures to curb false information and rumours being spread on the messaging platform. According to media reports, India has long been a growing market for the social media network as more Indians come online. Based on data, Facebook now has 241 million active users in India – a million more than it does in the U.S.– making India the country with its largest user base, a report from The Next Web, a news portal, states further noting that active users in India have increased 27% as compared to 12% in the United States in 2017. As of Jan 2018, the highest number of male Facebook users were between 18 and 24 years old and amounted to about 73.8 million. Among females, the highest number of users were the same age group, amounting to about 23.4 million. So also, according to reports, Indian has over 200 million WhatsApp users making it the biggest market in the world.


According to reports, India has over a billion phone subscribers with access to cheap mobile data leading to circulation of false news messages and videos going viral instantly, creating mass hysteria and stirring up communal tensions as seen in recent cases. False messages about child abductors on Facebook-owned WhatsApp have helped trigger mass beatings of over a dozen people across the country. A WhatsApp text warning of 400 child traffickers arriving in the southern Indian technology hub of Bengaluru led a frenzied mob to lynch a 26-year-old man, a migrant construction worker from another state, on suspicions that he was a kidnapper. Weeks later, in a similar incident, a WhatsApp text circulated in some districts of Madhya Pradesh resulted in inflaming a mob of 50-60 villagers into savagely beating up two innocent men on suspicion that they were going to murder people and sell their body parts. The essence of the message, written in Hindi, was that 500 people disguised as beggars were roaming the area so that they could kill people to harvest their organs. The message also urged recipients to forward it to friends and family which the Police later said was fake. Police officers who joined several local WhatsApp groups, found three men circulating the message and they were arrested.


Therefore there was a hue-and-cry that the government needs to intervene and forbid social media sites from disseminating fake news or allowing accounts that are actually bots. In a bid to tighten the screws, the Union IT and Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad met with WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels in New Delhi recently. The minister is reported to have urged Daniels to find solution to challenges of fake news which are in violation of Indian laws. WhatsApp has been told to appoint a grievance officer in India, properly comply with Indian laws and WhatsApp which has become an important component of India's digital storage must have a proper corporate entity located in India. Daniels was in India meeting business and government officials trying to address concerns around fake news on its messaging platform which have led to these horrific crimes.


Earlier, while pitching for use of technology to curb the spread of fake news by social media platforms, in a Lok Sabha debate, he had suggested appointment of  “grievance officers” for consumer complaints. He opined that all social media platforms must ensure that any kind of fake or abusive news cannot be circulated and recirculated to create crimes in India and that the origin of such news should also be technologically answered. WhatsApp also informed the government that it is building a local team, including India head, as part of steps to check fake news circulation.
WhatsApp subsequently issued a statement that it would be stepping up their education efforts so that people are aware of its safety features and how to spot fake news and hoaxes. WhatsApp is also reported to have said that it is considering changes to the service to the extent of changes to its encryption, which ensures messages are not read by anyone except the sender and the recipient. The IT ministry had warned the platform that it cannot escape its responsibility for such rampant abuse and needed to find originators of provocative messages. It had also warned that in the absence of adequate checks, it will treat the messaging platform as abettor of rumour propagation and legal consequences will follow.


Those against regulation state that regulation won’t prevent any harm, instead they argue that it will stifle the exchange of ideas and any enforcement will only benefit those in power, whether that power is held by government or corporations. In this context it is relevant to note an article by Sohini Chatterjee and Akshat Agarwal, both research fellows at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy which states, "Any top-down regulation that defines fake news simply as containing falsehood may be setting itself up for failure. It is likely that such regulation would be vague and over-broad, thereby not providing effective guidance for law enforcement or compliance.”


In light of the above, the duo proposed a decentralized three-point agenda to address fake news. The first prong is to ensure critical media literacy, with critical digital literacy as a component focusing on encouraging individuals to learn the skills required to navigate the internet and question the content they are exposed to. The second prong to nurture a general culture of scepticism among citizens towards information. Good practices, such as verifying the source of the news and corroboration with related news, ought to be advanced in schools and through public education campaigns. The role of the district administration and local community leaders is key in this regard. Lastly, in a limited set of situations, such as when there is threat to life or national security, targeted and proportionate legal interventions can be explored. They should account for existing speech offences to avoid overlap. Despite their own flaws, existing provisions on hate speech, sedition and defamation already deal with certain kinds of harm that may be substantially similar to those posed by fake news. Implementation of the above three prongs will not only be a sustainable response to fake news, but will also strike the necessary balance with free speech considerations.


On the other hand, the IT ministry said that government is committed to freedom of speech and expression and privacy of its citizens as enshrined in the Constitution and does not regulate content appearing in social media platform. But social network platforms, are required to follow due diligence as provided in Section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000 and the Rules notified therein. They have also to follow Article 19(2) of the Constitution and ensure that their platforms are not used to commit and provoke terrorism, extremism, violence and crime. The ministry also informed that a campaign to educate school children about the misuse of social media for propagation of false news will be taken up by the Centre. The Common Service Centres will also be engaged in the task of promoting this message among people, especially in rural areas.
Nevertheless, the proponents of social media argue that it is a matter of public interest to regulate social media and as important as regulating tobacco or alcohol.