{"id":13832,"date":"2021-02-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/13-02-2021\/blocking-of-internet-content-government-v-s-twitter-row\/"},"modified":"2021-02-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T00:00:00","slug":"blocking-of-internet-content-government-v-s-twitter-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2021\/blocking-of-internet-content-government-v-s-twitter-row","title":{"rendered":"Blocking of Internet Content: Government v\/s Twitter Row"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News:<\/strong> The government expressed &#8220;strong displeasure&#8221; about Twitter&#8217;s response to the emergency order.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Government wanted Twitter to block more than a thousand accounts for alleged spread of provocative content and misinformation on the farmer protests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is the controversy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pro-Government v\/s Anti-Government Sentiments<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>The government is <strong>pushing Agrarian reforms via three acts,<\/strong> providing the private sector a bigger role in its quest to empower farmers.<\/li>\n<li>Whereas the <strong>farmers especially from Punjab, Haryana and Western UP<\/strong> are fearing that security of Minimum Support Price (MSP) will be slowly diluted after these reforms.<\/li>\n<li>There are <strong>many fake news circling Social Media.<\/strong> For these propaganda, no responsibility was taken by Social Media Giants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Involvement of<strong> Foreign Celebrities in Farm Protest<\/strong> v\/s <strong>Sovereignty over the internal matters of India.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Recent <strong>tweets by Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, etc<\/strong> were seen as involvement of foreign celebrities in India\u2019s internal matters.<\/li>\n<li>There were <strong>allegations that Social Media Companies<\/strong> <strong>are not helping the government curb anti- National secessionist elements<\/strong> <strong>viz Khalistan and others.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dichotomy in actions of Social Media Giants and need to regulate them<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Indian Government has also pointed out the<strong> dual stance of Twitter in the US Capitol Incident and Farm Protest Incident of India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Need for Regulation and Stringent Laws:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fake News spreads faster than Real News: <\/strong>Seeing increasing mob lynching cases targetting specific communities and innocent people, Supreme Court was forced to intervene by issuing directives.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Data Theft: <\/strong>Data is the oil of the 4th Industrial Revolution.\n<ul>\n<li>The companies sharing and keeping data abroad are often violating the Right to Privacy and Ownership of Self Data of Indian Citizens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dual Standards: <\/strong>Social Media Firms are often taking different stands in different countries.\n<ul>\n<li>Viz they provide<strong> better control to Europeans over their Privacy as compared to Indians<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Internal Security: Digital Frauds <\/strong>are increasing due to different flaws in algorithms of Social Media.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What are the laws for regulating Social Media?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 <\/strong>Social Media have to follow the intermediaries guidelines under IT Act 2000 and Indian Penal Code (IPC).\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Criticism<\/strong>: It was misused by the government to silence even constructive criticism.<\/li>\n<li>Due to the rampant misuse, Supreme Court declared Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional in <strong>Shreya Singhal v\/s Union of India Case<\/strong> 2015.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Government Directives: <\/strong>Social Media Channels need to take down any content as directed by Court or Law Enforcement Agencies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Community Guidelines: <\/strong>There are provisions related to reporting mechanisms to involve citizens in community policing over obscene and immoral posts. But here the discretion of Social Media Platforms plays a dominant role.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Criticism of this Discretion<\/strong>: Many <strong>posts on Body Positivity and Menstruation were taken down<\/strong> while other <strong>explicit images continued under the Right to Artistic Expression.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is the debate about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Setting the boundaries to freedom of Speech and Expression<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Free Speech means one\u2019s ability to express oneself in whatever way one wants.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution<\/strong> empowers all citizens with the right to freedom of speech and expression.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Article 19 (2): <\/strong>It empowers the government to impose, by law, reasonable restrictions upon the freedom of speech and expression \u201cin the interests of\n<ul>\n<li>interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India,<\/li>\n<li>the security of the State,<\/li>\n<li>friendly relations with foreign States,<\/li>\n<li>public order,<\/li>\n<li>decency or<\/li>\n<li>morality or<\/li>\n<li>in relation to contempt of court,<\/li>\n<li>defamation or incitement to an offence.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Section 69A of IT Act 2000<\/strong> also provides for similar provisions as Article 19(2).<\/li>\n<li><strong>No Harm Principle of J S Mill: <\/strong>Government should not interfere until there is substantial harm to the people.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Different Supreme Court Rulings (like Kedar Nath Singh V\/s State of Bihar 1962 and Shreya Singhal v\/s Union of India case, 2015) allow constructive criticism<\/strong> of Government and its Policies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The current regime is not capable enough to meet the requirements of emerging challenges.<\/li>\n<li>Hence there is a need to create a <strong>Code on Regulation of Social Media<\/strong> which may consolidate the provisions of different regulatory acts and enable constructive Freedom of Speech.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/indian-laws-must-be-followed-government-to-twitter\/article33798461.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: The government expressed &#8220;strong displeasure&#8221; about Twitter&#8217;s response to the emergency order. Government wanted Twitter to block more than a thousand accounts for alleged spread of provocative content and misinformation on the farmer protests. What is the controversy? Pro-Government v\/s Anti-Government Sentiments: The government is pushing Agrarian reforms via three acts, providing the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/6269199current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}