The Karnataka High Court is the latest high office to be affected by the mischief of selective news portrayal on social media. A judge last week allegedly referred to a minority-dominated area in Bengaluru to be “in Pakistan”, which caused a furore.
While only the edited clip went viral, the context it was said in was not clear, although the judge did express regret for it later. It led to advocates demanding that live streaming of court proceedings be stopped, as clips from these were being used to malign the judiciary out of context.
In an interim order on Tuesday, the high court restrained various social media platforms from sharing live streams of court proceedings and ordered with immediate effect the deletion of all such uploaded videos. The court said such behaviour created wrong opinions about the judiciary, affecting the trust the public reposes in this formidable pillar of democracy.
It is not just the judiciary that is vulnerable to mischief in social media, which has emerged as a potent tool in politics, social groups, as well as in interpersonal relationships. This is posing a dilemma as social media is also considered an effective conduit for expressing the freedom of speech.
To combat misinformation, last year the Union government initiated amendments to rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Amendment to allow the setting up of fact-checking units to identify and take down fake/misleading content about the government. This week, the Bombay High Court cited it as a violation of the rights to equality and freedom of expression, and struck down the rule.
The regulation of social media platforms has emerged as a huge challenge in the face of rapid expansion and evolution of the digital landscape. The challenge is aggravated in a sensitive, diverse country like India where the spark of misinformation can ignite the tinderbox of violent communal incidents.
Social media is the most preferred tool of miscreants to create widespread mischief and discord in society. The Union and state governments, irrespective of the ruling parties and their ideologies, need to put their heads together to prevent the spread of malice and hatred in society in the name of freedom of speech and expression.