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India is a “communal tinderbox”: PIL in SC to make social media houses accountable for spreading fake news

Dated: October 31, 2020

                                                                                                                                       - By Megha Bhatia

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was recently filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions for the Centre to frame criminal prosecution laws for individuals engaged in the propagation of hate and fake news via social media.

The petition states that most of India’s communal disputes are sparked by social media posts and it prays that social media houses be kept directly accountable for spreading these hate speeches.

The Petition is by Advocate Vineet Jindal, filed through Advocate-on-Record Raj Kishor Choudhary. The Plea has arrayed Union of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, The Ministry of Telecommunication, Twitter Communications India Private Limited and Facebook India as respondents. The petition stays, “The petitioner, has been compelled to file the present writ petition in the public interest for directing the respondents to make laws for regulating/governing social media platforms.”

The petitioner also urged the top courts to guide websites such as Facebook and Twitter to the Central Government and social media to create an auto removal system for hate speech and fake news.

Further, the petitioner has submitted that the plea is being filed in wake of two tweets by the name of one Armin Navabi from his Twitter handle @ArminNavabi against Hindu goddess and using derogatory terms. 

The petition focuses on the freedom of speech and expression provided for in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and how the appropriate limitations that may be placed pursuant to Article 19(2) go hand in hand. It adds that Freedom of expression is a complex right. This is because freedom of expression is not absolute and carries with it special duties and responsibilities therefore it may be subject to certain restrictions provided by law. 

“It would be beneficial for India to look at the regulation standards implemented by different countries in order to introduce guidelines which form a balance between freedom of speech and accountability of social media platforms,” says the plea. 

The petition notes that a country such as India is a “communal tinderbox” and that the damage has already spread like wild fire by the time action against any inflammatory posts is taken. “In a country like India, which is perpetually on a communal tinderbox, where religious sentiments run deep, where respect for certain public and historical figures always come accompanied with veneration for their demi-god status, it doesn’t take much for malice to be coated with a toxic communal hue.”

The petitioner goes on to state that “Social media has been playing a harmful role in inciting communal violence in India and time has come to check its misuse.”

“Social networking sites are a threat to national protection as they are used as instruments for drug trafficking, money laundering and match –fixing, terrorism, and instigating violence and for rumour tools etc.”

Incidents triggered by social media

The plea cites a variety of posts on social media that sparked communal clashes, such as:

(a)2014 Pune Case (related to a Facebook Post containing defamatory photos with allegedly derogatory references to the late Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray, Warrior King Shivaji Maharaj, and others)

(b)2013, Muzaffarnagar Case (a fake video got viral that was one of the causes of communal clashes)

(c)False and morphed videos of Tibetans were circulated in 2012 under the argument that they represented the oppression of the Rohingya in Myanmar, resulting in a mass exodus of people in some metropolitan cities and even small riots.

(d)The plea, citing the Economic Times article, notes that social media posts in West Bengal caused seven communal riots in a month.

(e)Significantly, citing a video posted by HuffPost, the Petition argues that separate videos of the Delhi Police began to go viral in the agony of Hindu-Muslim riots in northeast Delhi.

The Plea argues that one video showed young, wounded Muslim men being targeted by police. In this context, the plea states, “this kind of evidence helped cement the popular perception that the Delhi Police had either been complicit or negligent in failing to contain communal violence.” Furthermore, the plea states that social media has played a detrimental role in inciting group violence in India and the time has come to verify its abuse.

Prayer by Petitioner

(a)Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to make separate Laws for regulating Social Media Platforms.

(b)Issue a writ in the form of mandamus directing respondents to hold social media houses directly accountable for spreading hate speeches within society, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.

(c)Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus ordering respondents to frame separate laws for criminal prosecution of individuals implicated by Social Media Sites in the dissemination of hatred & false news.

(d)Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus to direct respondents to create a system for the automated removal of hate speeches and false news within a limited period of time in order to minimise the counter-production of such hate speeches or fake news.

(e)Issue a writ in the nature of mandamus ordering the respondents to select an investigating officer expert in each case registered via Social Media Sites to spread hate & fake news.

The Plea added, “It would be beneficial for India to look at the regulation standards implemented by different countries in order to introduce guidelines which form a balance between freedom of speech and accountability of social media platforms.”

Significantly, it has been pointed out in the plea that, “Our country has seen plenty of communal violence in the past, but in today’s time of social media, these aggressions are not just restricted to the regional o the local population, the entire country is taken along. The fog of rumours, innuendo, and hate that act as kindling in a local communal clash immediately spread across India through social media. This has reduced the social distance between local communal conflict and national communal polarization. Today, local communal conflict can be made a national issue in seconds, and a larger communal narrative can quickly be constructed from a patchwork of local incidents.”