India Need Sovereign Rules to Govern Social Media

Context: India needs social media governing sovereign rules to curb the infodemic of fake news as well as preserve its sovereignty and liberty.

Phenomenon of Misinformation

• Instances of mob violence: spurred by incendiary material posted online.
• Campaigns aimed at pressurizing Facebook: to revise its hands-off policy on what gets conveyed by its media vehicles. 
• US-based company: had signaled a revision of its guidelines for content intervention. 
• Twitter: recently tightened its self-regulatory norms (fact-check of tweets).
•  US political trends: suggest state regulation may into force at some point. 

Need for Social Media Governing Sovereign Rules

• India’s subjugation to moderation by American values and politics: in the absence of Indian law governing social media.
• Right to free speech guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
• Foreign intervention in the social media domain could lead to loss of sovereignty: can give rise to geopolitical issues (as online platforms are utilized as a propaganda tool).
• US restrictions based on global principles of civil decency: unlikely to satisfy the specific interests of our democracy.

Way Forward

• Social media rules and mechanisms of moderation: in consonance with our constitutional values.
• Framed rules with the provision of public scrutiny and democratic discussion for employing an external agency to filter content.
• Twin objectives of sovereign social media rules: should be to keep incendiary stuff off the web, while safeguarding our liberty to speak the truth.

Conclusion: So severe has the crisis of lies fanning out far and wide become that “mis" is now an apt prefix for this so-called “information age".