NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment in a PIL seeking action against the alleged promotion of “hate and harmful contents” on Facebook India (now Meta) against the Rohingya community.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, hearing the plea by two members of the Rohingya community, Mohammad Hamim and Kawsar Mohammed, who flagged hate campaigns on social media.
Rohingyas have been termed as “terrorists” and “infiltrators” on Meta and their numbers were exaggerated in India where they came as refugees following ethnic violence in Myanmar, as per the plea.
“Also, as 2024 is an election year in India, there is high risk of widespread harmful content in both Hindi and other Indian languages originating in India. Particularly, politically divisive content and misinformation can result in situations of violence against Rohingyas in India and abroad,” it contended.
Representing Facebook, Senior advocate Arvind Datar said while substantial work has already been done by the platform following consultations with the Centre to prevent any abuse on the platform, completely stopping hate speech is not possible as “intermediaries can’t be super censors”.
Petitioners contended that the government should intervene but the court struck a note of caution on seeking “state censorship” as a remedy.
During the hearing, the high court asked the petitioner if pre-censorship on content and proposed government intervention was an “appropriate” relief. “You can’t be selective. If you are saying that the state can do censorship, then you will have to give them all the power and they will love it,” the high court said.
“You find a lot of abuse. But the remedy that you are saying, is it appropriate or excessive? There has to be a balance,” the bench remarked.
While noting that nothing could be deleted permanently in the “digital world” which was a “complicated ecosystem”, the court said it would pass an order on the petition. “Today, it is one community; tomorrow, there may be others. The fact that there is abuse on social media cannot be denied. He (petitioners) wants a perfect system. It is an illusion,” the court observed.
As per the plea, hateful posts targeting them originate in India, and the Facebook algorithms promotes hate speeches and content on its platform, leading to situations of violence against minority groups.
“It (Facebook) possesses ‘Break the Glass’ measures, referred to as ‘levers’, designed for critical emergencies. These measures can effectively limit the amplifying capabilities of Meta’s engagement-centric algorithms,” the plea said.