In today’s world, social media has become
an indispensable part of our lives, we don’t merely use it to stay connected
with our near and dear ones anymore, and we don’t just use it to share small
glimpses from our daily lives or to inform people of our achievements or
sorrows. Today, the social media world is heavily dominated by businesses, news
channels, politicians, celebrities and other influencers, each trying to reach
out to as many individuals as possible for their own agenda.
While from one angle, having everything connected on one platform may give the illusion that we people are most united than ever, that’s much far from the truth. Today people are so reliant on what they see on social media, that they don’t even bother to cross-check the back story of what they read. This problem worsens when popular celebrities, influencers, politicians and fan pages choose to share some information with millions of their followers without cross checking the same.
ISSUE
The most critical issue with spreading misinformation is that it can alter a person’s views, opinions, or maybe even affect a person’s life directly or indirectly when done repeatedly over a period of time. It can be used to manipulate people, it can be used for furthering political or religious agenda, it can be misused for raising funds by lying to the public, it can be used to gain emotional sympathy or to even antagonize someone specifically, and in recent times we have seen how it is used by trolls to particularly target someone and mock them publicly.
Thus, for a safer, respectable and friendlier digital space, it would be wise for the Government to penalize those who intentionally spread misinformation, by fining them heavy fines for every such misleading information that they share publicly. This will help in restoring the credibility of information in the social media world overall.
However, there are some
arguments against the penalization of misinformation as well, they are:
Everyone has a fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a)
Saying a lie isn’t punishable in the real world, then why should a person be punished for saying a lie on a virtual platform?
We all know that we have a fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution. However, this doesn’t mean that this right is absolute in nature; like all other fundamental rights reasonable restrictions are imposed on it too, for example, no one should defame another merely because they have the right to speak whatever they wish. Similarly, sections 292 to 294 of the Indian Penal Code prohibit the distribution of obscene words, pictures, drawings, books, etc. Further, Article 19(2) has clarified that the State is allowed to impose restrictions on fundamental rights under Article 19(1) in the interests of “the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”
Thus, our fundamental right to free speech and expression isn’t absolute and reasonable restrictions can be imposed on it from time to time by the State, due to the reasons discussed above.
As we know that misinformation may sometimes threaten the security of our nation or disrupt public order or morality, it makes more sense to penalize the spread of misinformation through heavy fines so that such spread of misinformation threatens the unity and stability of our country can be curbed from its very root.
Now addressing the second argument, that why a lie that isn’t punishable in the real world, should be punished in the virtual world? The answer to this question is tricky but the reason is that a person has much more power to influence and reach several thousands of people via a mere sensational post in the digital world. This wouldn’t be possible in the real world, as no one stops to listen to a random stranger in our actual living world.
People over social media tend to believe what they see even if it is posted by a random stranger. The unfortunate truth is that most people consider information shared through random posts by random pages to be at par with the news shared by reputed new channels, people don’t bother to differentiate between the two sources because they are just lazy and ignorant. No one even thinks of questioning the authenticity of the originator of the post and so some people use this to their advantage and create fake accounts, also widely known as troll accounts to mislead others with the aim of furthering their own political or religious propaganda, thus creating a divide among people.
Such nuisances created by the spread of
misinformation must not be taken lightly because it can pose a threat to the
unity and security of our country in the long run. In recent times we have seen
how misinformation is being used as a tool by some political enthusiasts to create
a bias in favour of their own political or religious agenda, and this problem has
become so serious that followers of such influencers have become extremely
intolerant towards people having other viewpoints. Fights sometimes get so
tense that even close friends become enemies and stop talking to each other,
each thinking that they have taken the ‘correct’ political or religious stand.
Another unfortunate part of all this is that social media companies themselves don’t bother about the authenticity of posts being shared by their users and deny any liability for allowing the spread of misinformation through their platform.
Thus, it is high time
that the Government takes cognizance of this rising issue and makes laws to
curb the spread of misinformation on social media, as this way we can preserve the
unity of our country and ensure that every perpetrator who intends to mislead
the public is punished.
CONCLUSION
Information plays a huge role in our lives today, it helps us stay in touch with reality and everything happening around us. Every new information we receive makes us build a new thought or opinion on it subconsciously. In today’s globalized world, where we use smartphones and computers every minute of our lives, we rarely distinguish between information posted by a popular influencer or fan page or sometimes even a random stranger, with the information shared by authentic news channels or news websites, because latently our mind makes us believe everything flashed in front of our screens. We have seen how videos and photos from one past event are used to mislead people about a current event by political enthusiasts in recent times. Not everyone understands but every piece of misinformation, whether it’s a complete lie, a half-truth, misleading or biased information, it can bring vast and deadly repercussions, this is because misinformation helps in building a narrative over a period of time; it sometimes becomes so manipulative that people who are believers of that narrative consider themselves as ‘good’ and ‘superior’, and associate everyone else who disapproves of it as someone ‘bad’ or ‘inferior’. This false illusion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ created by such misleading narratives is nothing more than propaganda used by cunning political enthusiasts to divide and rule people.
India, which is the home to the largest
population of illiterate adults in the world, i.e. 37% of the global total[1],
is likely to be more susceptible to the dangers of misinformation as the
uneducated and not so technology-savvy population of our country are more prone
to be baited into traps of false illusions and narratives created by political
enthusiasts and religious fanatics.
In our present day, when educated people
are careless and ignorant enough to not cross verify the information available
on social media platforms with proper news sources, it is highly unlikely to
expect the same from the uneducated section of our population when they
themselves don’t understand the dangers associated with social media or misinformation.
Thus, I feel it is time
for the Government to step in and educate everyone about the need for relying
only on reputed news channels and news websites for information. The Government
should also penalize the people who use social media as a tool to spread
misinformation with the aim of furthering their selfish political and religious
interests; this can be done by imposing hefty fines for every piece of
misinformation shared, as this would deter further sharing of misinformation.
Misinformation: Misinformation doesn’t necessarily mean a complete lie, it could be a half truth, it could be a biased news or any misleading information aiming to manipulate or instill sensitive feelings, hate mongering, etc.
Influencer: People who are followed by the general public for their works, thoughts or opinions and whose public posts have the potential to reach a large number of people.
Troll: Someone who leaves an intentionally annoying or offensive message on the internet, in order to upset someone or to get attention or cause trouble.[2]
Information: knowledge obtained from investigation, study, instruction, intelligence, news, facts, or data.[3]
*The Author is a Student of 2nd Year (3 years LLB), Techno India University, Kolkata (Batch of 2023)
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and not to the Jurisedge Academy.
Readers may submit his/her blog for publication. Click Here or Scan the QR Code to submit your manuscript.
[1] OxfamAdmin, OXFAM India, “10 facts on illiteracy in India that you must know” published Sep 08, 2015, Available at: https://www.oxfamindia.org/featuredstories/10-facts-illiteracy-india-you-must-know (Retrieved March 21, 2022)
[3] ‘information’, Definition from the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Available at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information (Retrieved March 21, 2022)
Saurabh Kumar
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Author- Rudrani Ghosh*
INTRODUCTION
In today’s world, social media has become an indispensable part of our lives, we don’t merely use it to stay connected with our near and dear ones anymore, and we don’t just use it to share small glimpses from our daily lives or to inform people of our achievements or sorrows. Today, the social media world is heavily dominated by businesses, news channels, politicians, celebrities and other influencers, each trying to reach out to as many individuals as possible for their own agenda.
While from one angle, having everything connected on one platform may give the illusion that we people are most united than ever, that’s much far from the truth. Today people are so reliant on what they see on social media, that they don’t even bother to cross-check the back story of what they read. This problem worsens when popular celebrities, influencers, politicians and fan pages choose to share some information with millions of their followers without cross checking the same.
ISSUE
The most critical issue with spreading misinformation is that it can alter a person’s views, opinions, or maybe even affect a person’s life directly or indirectly when done repeatedly over a period of time. It can be used to manipulate people, it can be used for furthering political or religious agenda, it can be misused for raising funds by lying to the public, it can be used to gain emotional sympathy or to even antagonize someone specifically, and in recent times we have seen how it is used by trolls to particularly target someone and mock them publicly.
Thus, for a safer, respectable and friendlier digital space, it would be wise for the Government to penalize those who intentionally spread misinformation, by fining them heavy fines for every such misleading information that they share publicly. This will help in restoring the credibility of information in the social media world overall.
However, there are some arguments against the penalization of misinformation as well, they are:
We all know that we have a fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution. However, this doesn’t mean that this right is absolute in nature; like all other fundamental rights reasonable restrictions are imposed on it too, for example, no one should defame another merely because they have the right to speak whatever they wish. Similarly, sections 292 to 294 of the Indian Penal Code prohibit the distribution of obscene words, pictures, drawings, books, etc. Further, Article 19(2) has clarified that the State is allowed to impose restrictions on fundamental rights under Article 19(1) in the interests of “the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”
Thus, our fundamental right to free speech and expression isn’t absolute and reasonable restrictions can be imposed on it from time to time by the State, due to the reasons discussed above.
As we know that misinformation may sometimes threaten the security of our nation or disrupt public order or morality, it makes more sense to penalize the spread of misinformation through heavy fines so that such spread of misinformation threatens the unity and stability of our country can be curbed from its very root.
Now addressing the second argument, that why a lie that isn’t punishable in the real world, should be punished in the virtual world? The answer to this question is tricky but the reason is that a person has much more power to influence and reach several thousands of people via a mere sensational post in the digital world. This wouldn’t be possible in the real world, as no one stops to listen to a random stranger in our actual living world.
People over social media tend to believe what they see even if it is posted by a random stranger. The unfortunate truth is that most people consider information shared through random posts by random pages to be at par with the news shared by reputed new channels, people don’t bother to differentiate between the two sources because they are just lazy and ignorant. No one even thinks of questioning the authenticity of the originator of the post and so some people use this to their advantage and create fake accounts, also widely known as troll accounts to mislead others with the aim of furthering their own political or religious propaganda, thus creating a divide among people.
Such nuisances created by the spread of misinformation must not be taken lightly because it can pose a threat to the unity and security of our country in the long run. In recent times we have seen how misinformation is being used as a tool by some political enthusiasts to create a bias in favour of their own political or religious agenda, and this problem has become so serious that followers of such influencers have become extremely intolerant towards people having other viewpoints. Fights sometimes get so tense that even close friends become enemies and stop talking to each other, each thinking that they have taken the ‘correct’ political or religious stand.
Another unfortunate part of all this is that social media companies themselves don’t bother about the authenticity of posts being shared by their users and deny any liability for allowing the spread of misinformation through their platform.
Thus, it is high time that the Government takes cognizance of this rising issue and makes laws to curb the spread of misinformation on social media, as this way we can preserve the unity of our country and ensure that every perpetrator who intends to mislead the public is punished.
CONCLUSION
Information plays a huge role in our lives today, it helps us stay in touch with reality and everything happening around us. Every new information we receive makes us build a new thought or opinion on it subconsciously. In today’s globalized world, where we use smartphones and computers every minute of our lives, we rarely distinguish between information posted by a popular influencer or fan page or sometimes even a random stranger, with the information shared by authentic news channels or news websites, because latently our mind makes us believe everything flashed in front of our screens. We have seen how videos and photos from one past event are used to mislead people about a current event by political enthusiasts in recent times. Not everyone understands but every piece of misinformation, whether it’s a complete lie, a half-truth, misleading or biased information, it can bring vast and deadly repercussions, this is because misinformation helps in building a narrative over a period of time; it sometimes becomes so manipulative that people who are believers of that narrative consider themselves as ‘good’ and ‘superior’, and associate everyone else who disapproves of it as someone ‘bad’ or ‘inferior’. This false illusion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ created by such misleading narratives is nothing more than propaganda used by cunning political enthusiasts to divide and rule people.
India, which is the home to the largest population of illiterate adults in the world, i.e. 37% of the global total[1], is likely to be more susceptible to the dangers of misinformation as the uneducated and not so technology-savvy population of our country are more prone to be baited into traps of false illusions and narratives created by political enthusiasts and religious fanatics.
In our present day, when educated people are careless and ignorant enough to not cross verify the information available on social media platforms with proper news sources, it is highly unlikely to expect the same from the uneducated section of our population when they themselves don’t understand the dangers associated with social media or misinformation.
Thus, I feel it is time for the Government to step in and educate everyone about the need for relying only on reputed news channels and news websites for information. The Government should also penalize the people who use social media as a tool to spread misinformation with the aim of furthering their selfish political and religious interests; this can be done by imposing hefty fines for every piece of misinformation shared, as this would deter further sharing of misinformation.
*The Author is a Student of 2nd Year (3 years LLB), Techno India University, Kolkata (Batch of 2023)
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and not to the Jurisedge Academy.
Readers may submit his/her blog for publication. Click Here or Scan the QR Code to submit your manuscript.
[1] OxfamAdmin, OXFAM India, “10 facts on illiteracy in India that you must know” published Sep 08, 2015, Available at: https://www.oxfamindia.org/featuredstories/10-facts-illiteracy-india-you-must-know (Retrieved March 21, 2022)
[2] ‘troll’, Definition from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/troll (Retrieved March 20, 2022)
[3] ‘information’, Definition from the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Available at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information (Retrieved March 21, 2022)
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