On May 25, we were flooded with the news of social media platforms getting banned the next day. Before digging deeper, let’s go back to February 25. When the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MEITy) issued a three-month ultimatum to the social media platforms to comply with the newly introduced IT rules.
According to the new rules, All the social media companies were directed to appoint one resident grievance officer, one chief compliance officer, and one nodal contact person. These officers will take cognizance of the user's complaint regarding fake news, objectionable content, and content hurting religious sentiments, etc. They are supposed to regulate the content and remove it if it is found objectionable. If companies fail to comply with the new rules by May 25, they would lose their status and protections as intermediaries.
Why are these new rules and regulations being introduced all of a sudden? Well, the answer lies in the whims and fancies of these tech giants. For the last few years, these social media companies have become the epicenter of fake news and biased content. Lots of complaints have been raised in the past regarding the fake accounts that propagate hatred and anti-India agenda. However, nothing much has been done to rectify any of it.
Twitter has earned the reputation of a hypocrite in India. Last year, during Capitol Hill's violence in the States, Twitter was quick to block accounts of the erstwhile US President Donald Trump and his sympathizers. However, during the Red Fort violence on January 26, 2021, in India, Twitter ignored every person involved in the horrible incident and didn’t block a single account, not even those who were shamelessly sharing videos of the miscreants.
Twitter became a breeding source of rampant vaccine misinformation. Twitter, without any hesitation, showed regions of Ladakh to be a territory of China during the peak of the Indo-China tussle last year.
Is it just us or are you seeing a pattern here too? It can’t be just a coincidence.
Locking horns with the Indian government
In November 2018, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey shared the stage with six left-liberal women including ex-NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt. These six ladies are known for their anti-Hindu rant. The same day, Jack Dorsey could be seen holding a poster on which the anti-Brahmin slogan “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy” was written. On several occasions, Jack Dorsey has been accused of promoting and protecting Twitter handles or accounts that spew venom against Hindus especially Brahmins.
Many times he has been found endorsing an anti-establishment agenda ultimately leading to anarchy in the country.
Twitter has locked horns with the Indian government on multiple occasions by demeaning the government, dismissing the legitimate concerns of selective censorship, and dodging the law of the land.
Last year, Al-Jazeera’s video showed a group of young Pakistani laughing about how she created fake news, researched which hashtags were trending, and created fake hashtags. All they had to do was pay a bunch of other unemployed goons who would start circulating this fake news in India and tag another bunch of goons in India. Fake news is easy to circulate, and finding its source is not easy. See how Pakistani explained the creation of accounts with lakhs of followers to target Modi by spreading fake news.
Let’s talk about Facebook which is increasingly becoming one of the biggest platforms to share fake news and objectionable content. In 2019, a terrorist in New Zealand live-streamed shooting of people for 20 minutes. Facebook was criticized all over the world. A Facebook user in Tamil Nadu, India started seeing ads about converting to Islam and information about Islam. When he closed the ad, the reason was flashed to him.
Facebook and Google have been criticized for promoting anti-Jew content, in the past. Many ISIS terrorists were found selling Yazidi women on Facebook but no action was taken by Facebook. They had uploaded images of the women and had tagged them with price along with the caption “Yazidi women for sale”.
Image source: Asianet
Twitter’s favoritism exposed
It all started when IPS D. Roopa, who is the Inspector General of Bengaluru, posted a status on her Facebook account questioning why many people opposed a ban on firecrackers.
According to D. Roopa, there was no mention of crackers in ancient texts and stated that there was “nothing Hindu about crackers”. TrueIndology, (describe the kind of account here) didn’t agree with her statement and offered references from ancient Hindu scriptures such as Skanda Purana and Ananda Ramayana. The little ego of IPS D. Roopa was hurt with evidence and disagreement over the facts.
Next, came something shameful which was not expected of her. She asked TrueIndology for the personal details, which nobody in their sane mind would share.. she sent another message, “Your time is up”. Within 5 minutes, his account was suspended, clearly showing how considerate Twitter was of anti-Hindu posts or handles. Twitter is supposed to send a mail warning TrueIndology about tweets that could lead to suspension. However, Twitter didn’t give any reason and unilaterally suspended his account.
TrueIndology was famous for the tweets containing historical evidence and facts from Indian scriptures and that makes it an easy target by leftists.
Twitter account of Kangana Rananut suspended
Kangana Ranaut, a fierce lady who does not shy away from stating her opinion, is also an exceptional Indian actress. Her Twitter account was suspended. She is known for being vocal about Hinduism on several social media platforms. She attracts the limelight for her hard-hitting tweets on pseudo-secularism in India targeting big names in Bollywood as well as Indian Politics. She was not given prior notice by Twitter before the microblogging site deleted her account permanently.
She tweeted about Mamta Banerjee and Bengal Assembly elections fostering terrorism and anti-Hindu sentiments to gain Muslim votes.
Many times, she has been seen praising the efforts of PM Narendra Modi. Probably one of the obvious reasons for deleting her account. Kangana accused Twitter of racism. She said, "Twitter has only proved my point that they're Americans and by birth, a white person feels entitled to enslave a brown person, they want to tell you what to think, speak or do ''.
The toolkit fiasco
In February 2021, Delhi Police Cyber Crime Cell had filed an FIR on charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy, and promoting hatred against the creators of a ‘toolkit’ on farmer protests. The toolkit was shared on Twitter by teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. Several foreign celebrities including Rihanna and Mia Khalifa also took part in the propaganda. According to the Special CP (Crime Branch) Praveer Ranjan, an inquiry showed the toolkit was formed by the Poetic Justice Foundation, which has been affiliated with Khalistani terrorists.
Recently, Delhi police visited Twitter India’s Delhi and Gurgaon offices to serve a notice in connection with posts by BJP leaders alleging a “Congress toolkit” plot. According to a senior police officer, police were holding an initial probe and summoning all people and organizations reportedly linked with the toolkit case. Twitter had flagged the BJP posts as “manipulated media”. The congress party was allegedly using the toolkit to malign Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government over the handling of the COVID pandemic.
How do different nations regulate social media sharing?
In 2018, Germany passed a law named NetzDG. According to this law, when any user lodges a content-related complaint the social media company has to take action within 24 hours. If action is not taken within 24 hours, they can be fined up to 50 million Euros.
According to Russian laws, social media companies can’t store the data of Russians outside Russia. When Linkedin tried to defy the laws, it was banned
In 2019, Australia passed the “Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act”. According to this law, social media companies could be fined heavily if objectionable or fake news is circulated through their platforms. Not only this, a company could be fined as high as 10% of their global turnover.
To answer your questions, social media will not be banned but it will be better regulated.
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