The social media is a double-edged weapon. While on the one hand it empowers the common man, it also comes with attendant risks. Popular though because of its accessibility and reach, it also can pose a menace and calls for guidelines that can bring transparency and accountability to its practitioners. Mukti Chawla weighs the pros and cons.
On 25 February 2021, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Ravi Prasad and Communications, Ravi Prasad and Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar announced new, stricter social media guidelines at a press conference.
The guidelines were announced after extended deliberations and in response to the fears that social media platforms lack transparency and accountability. When social media entered India’s digital space, no one would have imagined its growth, potential and the risks it poses in present day. The guidelines also attempt to address concerns of the rights of users regarding digital media.In a way, social media has finally come of age and it’s time that it becomes more responsible and accountable.
Monitoring and Regulation of apps needed
The formulation of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 is a milestone in young India’s digital trajectory. The rules have been framed in exercise of ‘powers under Section 87 (2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and in supersession of the earlier Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011.’
So, following the guidelines, now WhatsApp will have to identify the ‘originator of unlawful’ messages. Also, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube will have to ‘take down such messages within a specific time-frame, set up grievance redressal mechanisms and assist government agencies in investigation.’
The evolution of social media platforms
Social media forayed into India just a few years behind the entry of internet in the country. Although internet was introduced in India by 1986, it was on 15 August 1995 that state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) launched India’s first publicly available internet service making the now-quintessential service open to public use. By 2002, the first generation of social media platforms had entered digital space, creating a niche space among the young internet users. Among the first were MySpace, hi5, Friendster, Orkut, Flickr, even Facebook’s original and much simpler version that was introduced in 2004.
This was followed by the entry of Reddit and one of the most popular and still growing platforms YouTube in 2005. Officially founded in February 2005, YouTube has over two billion active users today and 42.9 per cent of all global internet users access YouTube monthly. Twitter came in 2006 followed by Yahoo’s microblogging and social networking website Tumblr founded in 2007 by David Karp.WhatsApp came in 2009, Instagram in 2010 and Snapchat in 2011. More recently, Tik Tok – video-sharing social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance – was launched in September 2016. However, Tik Tok was banned in India by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 29 June 2020, along with 223 other Chinese apps stating the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”
Digital boom has helped social media growth
The social media movement has empowered the common man in a big way. India’s digital boom enabling penetration and access to mobile phones, internet, etc. has undoubtedly helped the exponential growth of social media platforms and apps in India, across all age groups.
Presently, some of the most-used social media applications have a significant user base in India. This includes WhatsApp with the highest number of users at 53 crores, followed by YouTube at 44.8 crores, Facebook with 41 crores, Instagram 21 crores and micro-blogging site Twitter has the lowest user base in India at 1.75 crores.
Social media platforms getting popular
According to analytics firm App Annie’s‘State of Mobile 2021’ report, Facebook followed by WhatsApp Messenger and Instagram were the most downloaded apps in 2020 in India.In terms of overall time spent, YouTube was the number one streaming app at 26.5 hours per month on average, followed by MX Player, Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Interestingly, YouTube saw up to six times increase in time spent per user vs the next closest app, and its consumption was up to 38 hours a month, globally.
Till mid-2019, WhatsApp, now owned by Facebook, had more than 400 million users in India as opposed to close rival YouTube’s users that stood at 260 million at the time, according to App Annie. However, in December 2020, YouTube had 450 million monthly active users on Android phones and tablets in India while WhatsApp had 422 million monthly active users on Android. On iOS devices, WhatsApp has 459 million active users in India as opposed to YouTube’s 452 million users.
The risks of social media
With the advent and proliferation of social media across Indian society, the common man has been empowered. “I think internet and social media are great levellers. They have given the power to an ordinary citizen to connect with anyone, anywhere in the world. In fact, the common man can now directly connect to his elected candidate, a union minister, even the Prime Minister of the country,” offers Mumbai-based media student Swagata Ghosh.
On the other hand, social media and its ‘unchecked’ use have led to events and consequences that have only grown over the past few years. And, it’s not just in India. Many countries and the international community at large are trying to find solutions to the risks and the problems posed by social media platforms.
“There have been so many instances that show the ugly side of social media. Fake news, online abuse, stalking, trolling, fraud and cheating, defamatory content and content inciting unrest and religious disharmony … these are just to name a few. It’s time we come together as a civilised society and address the risks of social media and find legal and social solutions for the same,” feels Lucknow-based law researcher Ritika Singh.
Women and children, in particular, are at high risk when using social media applications. “I am scared of using any social media app. Everyday, I read about cases where a jilted lover or a pervert misuses social media to share morphed images of innocent girls and women. This is a direct threat to a woman’s dignity. And, what about video clips that show molestation even rape of girls… it’s preposterous and someone must be held accountable when such content emerges,” says a furious Ritika.
Fake news menace must be tackled
Of all the perils of social media, Fake News has caused the most damage and continues to bleed the country from within. Anti-social elements, anti-national groups and separatist entities within India and beyond actively use social media to spread fake news. Fake news has become a modern-day tool for circulation of inflammatory content that causes disharmony in the society, communal violence and disorder.
India’s new rules for social media aim to create transparency, establish stricter checks on the content circulating on social media and make the social media intermediaries put robust grievance redressal mechanisms for the users. ‘Social media intermediaries are no longer limited to playing the role of pure intermediary and often they become publishers. In respect of news and current affairs, publishers are expected to follow the journalistic conduct of Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Network Act, which are already applicable to print and TV’ said a release by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
India’s new social media rules are garnering global attention too. They come at a time when the US, the UK and Australia are pushing Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. to take responsibility for content on their platforms.