AUTHOR – Keerthana Reddy
We all live in a technology world and depend on it more than we want to admit. Living in this virtual world has it own share of ups and downs. Every individual is free to share his opinion and feelings on the internet. Does this imply that every message would be a positive note? We all know for a fact that it is not the case. There are so many people who troll others, post negative information and offensive content too. This content could offend anyone easily. Can we let this go? Can anything be done to curb this? Is there any authority to regulate and review the content being shared online?
There are so many young minds who are socially active. This does have an impact on their overall well being. Well, now does it seem like a serious issue. Hell yes!
There are so many portals available online like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Every individual has access to these. Us living in a very diverse society, each having a different mindset, we need to make sure that we do not fall prey to any negative information available online.
The Indian Government in 2013 took an initiative to ban any offensive, abusive, provocative content and images found on the internet or any such platform. It has issued a warning to all the social media platforms to comply to the rules, failing which the Government itself would take a strict action.
Now the question arises as to what should be considered ‘offensive’ and ‘obscene’ and what kind of content is acceptable.
The Government made an initiative to take down and put an end for once and for all to all the negativity floating on the internet by undertaking the censorship of the content being uploaded.
In 2019, a step was taken towards introducing guidelines to ensure that blasphemous material did not appear on the Internet.
Several internet firms have responded to this very initiative being taken up by the Government. Many of them have said that it is not possible to filter any material that would be uploaded. Bigger firms like Facebook and Google have made amends by removing offensive content after receiving complaints from their viewers. These internet players are known to be facing high number of suits in the Court of Law and many judges have threatened to take them down.
The Kapil Sibal’s Censorship Act
Mr. Kapil Sibal, a Congress politician, former Minister and a senior lawyer and the Information Technology Minister, said that the Government will not censor any social media websites. But that does not mean that they are free to post as per their whims and fancies. They must obey the rules and regulations, and above all, the Law just like the print and electronic media.
Mr. Sibal has made it clear to these firms without any obfuscation that the Government will never censor social media but would face more serious consequences if found to be disobeying the Law.
The court in the capital state, Delhi threatened a crackdown against internet firms and sites that failed to take steps to protect and safeguard sensibilities. The Court issued orders to Facebook and Google to develop a mechanism to keep a check and remove offensive content that is objectionable and would hurt people’s sentiments.
Facebook and Google said that they have complied with the court directive and removed all such “objectionable" material found on their websites. There are 21 other internet firms including Yahoo and Orkut who have been accused to cause communal unrest among their viewers.
Yahoo India, in its reply to the Delhi High Court said that the lawsuit against it on 'objectionable' content reflects solely on the abusive power of law and said that it is against the legal ethics and code. Yahoo has also filed a plea asking the court authorities to issue notices to 21 other internet firms who have the issue of the ‘objectionable content’ being posted online too. Yahoo also requested the Court authorities to get its name erased from all the legal proceedings.
Such proceedings have somewhat a similarity with the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in which the petitioner has sought reliefs in spite of the fact that there was no direct damage done to the petitioner and for that matter, there was no direct nexus between the petitioner and the issue. The Delhi High Court had refused to squash the proceedings initiated against Yahoo, in spite of its plea requesting for removal using the defence that Yahoo, India is not an online social networking site. Yahoo said that it cannot be paired with Facebook and Google in this aspect as there is a vast difference in the nature of the claims.
Though there have been many steps taken to curb this issue of offensive menace on the social platforms and many effective steps being taken by the Government, it is still prevalent and many of us are falling prey to this which is also an indirect reason to mental illness.
So why spread negativity and hatred when we can use these beautifully designed web platforms to bring a smile on each other’s faces.
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