Keep mighty in check, let the web stay free

The social media giants of the Internet, such as Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, Twitter, ShareChat and TikTok and others, have come forward voluntarily to observe a code of conduct during the Indian general elections of 2019. The promised reform by which no political campaign will be allowed 48 hours before voting in each of the seven phases and to act within three hours to take down content objected to by the Election Commission, on the ground that it violates Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, is the first major step towards trying to control social media platforms from being misused to influence or sway elections. The experience of the 2016 United States presidential election, in which it is suspected that the Russians played a major role in favouring Republican Donald Trump, may have awoken the world to what a dirty tricks department can do to swing the choice of the people in one direction or another.

What will be in force by way of the voluntary compliance with fairness in elections is minuscule compared to what damage the social media platforms can cause, and has been known to, in such events. The code has mostly to do with political advertising, which may have been big in the US election. What the social media will be unable to guarantee is the filtering of content that is clearly fake news or planted to favour one party or candidate. Essentially, the social media in democracies is a reactive medium and not pro-active with pre-censorship as in a more totalitarian or authoritarian nation like China. For instance, Facebook might be just about able to take down quickly objectionable or outright vile content like the livestreaming of the Christchurch massacre, but it cannot or will not control the content to the extent of stopping their uploading.

The social media platforms were reluctant to answer questions posed by a parliamentary committee on the Internet, perhaps afraid that the government is trying to go in the direction of controlling their operations by tying them down to keeping all their data in India. The seeking of such control over content is a double-edged sword with Internet users in peril of becoming subservient to government interest in a democracy that swears by the freedom of speech and expression. Mass media is important in the political realm as it can influence public opinion. Even then, it is hard to justify some forms of censorship or censuring of certain users because they are inimical to the power politicians enjoy. Considering how difficult it will be to sway a national election against a multiplicity of parties and alliances, all the venom on the Internet can only do little in the context of an Indian election involving 90 crore people. To keep the powerful in check is far too important in our country. Filtering out hate speech, divisive content and fake news should be the priority ahead of the elections and the taking over of the Internet should never be allowed.