INTRODUCTION
The World Wide Web connects millions by surpassing geographical boundaries, spurning time zones and revitalizing the standards of approach and accessibility. Today access to the internet has become a necessity of our life. The growing technology and diverse social media platforms have steered their way to numerous atrocities in the cyber space. Cyber bullying, hacking and data theft, personation, spread of fake and untrue news, depiction of obscenity, violation of privacy, cyber terrorism, stalking, copyright infringements, self governed social media trials and many more. India doesn't have any comprehensive legislation that deals with offences relating to social media. The laws which exist, essentially, are sectoral in its nature. These sectoral legislations are provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000, Indian Penal Code, 1860 and personal policies of the service providers.
PROVISIONS UNDER VARIOUS LEGISLATIONS IN THE CONSTITUTION:
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PROVISIONS UNDER THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000
Sections 43A of the act deals with possession and handling of any sensitive personal data or information in a computer, section 66A and 66D legislate punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service or device and cheating by personation respectively. Sections 66E and 66F deal with violation of privacy by transmission of an image without consent and cyber terrorism respectively, while 67A addresses punishment for publication or transmission of material containing sexually explicit act, in electronic form respectively.[1]
PROVISIONS UNDER THE INDIAN PENAL CODE, 1860
Section 354 (A) & (D) deal with outraging the modesty of a women and stalking respectively. While Section 499 addresses defamation as a crime. Further section 507 penalizes Criminal intimidation by anonymous communication.[2]
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2019
The year 2018 was historic as, an issue was raised under the watchful eye of the Hon'ble Supreme Court on account of Justice K. S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India.[3] . Where the case of Aadhaar Card Scheme was tested on the basis of the collection and aggregation of the section with the biometric details of the people of the nation which is to be used for different purposes, bearing the main right to protection enshrined in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. In view of such unregulated quality and status of the right to protection, the Supreme Court referred a nine judge bench. This landmark case held right to privacy to be a fundamental right and lead to the Personal Data Protection Bill. This bill is drafted by an expert committee headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna. This is the first bill that addresses social media and it intermedries. The bill relates to data protection and call for data by the government as and when requisite. The bill has been presented but is yet to be passed by the parliament.
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ATROCITIES THAT NEED BETTER LEGISLATION
FAKE NEWS
These scattered legislations have gaps that need to be bridged. According to a survey by Microsoft’s Third Digital Civility Index[4], we Indians are most likely to encounter fake news and internet hoaxes amongst the twenty-two countries surveyed. With the outbreak of COVID -19 and lockdown coming into picture, the use of social media has seemingly increased and with that being said there spread wide range of fake and untrue news.
A 26-minute video on Facebook alleged that the US government’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, manufactured the virus and shipped it to China. It was watched more than 8 million times before it was taken down. A video, titled “Plandemic”, warned that masks could make you sick.[5] Not just these but thousands of fake news have made rounds in this pandemic. Though the service providers are efficiently doing their best to curb down the fake news, a strong authoritative legislation with quick action is requisite.
SOCIAL MEDIA PREJUDICES
With many perks to offer, social media also creates complications. The power of being heard also unfortunately gives the masses power to indirectly influence decisions that actually demand neutrality, logic, and extensive research. Perspectives that were once just shared by accredited journalists of the court now are myriads of opinionated individuals with bare minimum knowledge of law. Hereby the flock delivers its own sentence of judgement before the judiciary. The functioning of a judiciary is, therefore, rampantly distorted on a regular basis. The case of Uma Khurana saw a teacher in a Delhi school being almost lynched by the mob on the suspicion that she had allegedly forced her students into prostitution. She was later acquitted. [6] Recently Manav Singh a student of class XII committed suicide due to extensive trolling and hate on social media as he was alleged of rape threatening a girl on social media in the past. There was no complaint filed for the same by the girl and that she had no proof for the same, a mere instagram story lead to terror by strangers and the boy to commit suicide. His father filed a police complaint and a case in the Delhi high court raising questions of law such as: Can social media disclosures without the burden of proof be allowed?[7]
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ROASTING AND TROLLING
Indian legislation does not account roasting and trolling to be cyber bullying offences. Various social media platforms have their policies that account certain restrictions towards the comments and videos made. Despite the same, the object of the troll is accomplished as within minutes its viewership is in hundreds. There are legislations that deal with offensive comments and trolling indirectly but are women centric, with change in nature of crime its time these laws detag the gender based term stipulated with them.
Recently there sparked a controversy titled as YouTube VS. Tik Tok wherein the video of a popular You Tuber Carry Minati was removed on grounds that it resulted in cyber bullying under the clauses of the social media platform. In India there is no law yet it motions that deals with cyber bullying or such related issues on social media platforms.
COMMENDABLE LAWS ARROUND THE GLOBE:
With no country spared by the atrocities of social media, there has been an increasing need for articulate legislation not just in India, but throughout the world. A glance at the same makes one thing clear that good governance can be achieved through strong laws.
In Germany the network enforcement law aims at combating agitation and fake news in social networks. The act applies to companies with more than 2 million registered users in the country. It enforces the service providers to remove anything that was clearly illegal within 24 hours and publish updates every six months about how they were doing. The penalty imposed on individuals is €5m and for companies up to €50m for failing to comply with the requirements. The first fine was imposed on Facebook. Facebook had to pay €2m for under-reporting illegal activity on its platforms.
Laws of the European Union for Social media service providers fine companies if they do not delete extremist content within an hour. While Australia has passed the Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act in 2019, introducing criminal penalties for social media companies, possible jail sentences for tech executives for up to three years. In 2015, the Australian Enhancing Online Safety Act empowered an E-Safety Commissioner to demand that social media companies take down harassing and abusive posts. In 2018, after the death of Charlotte Dawson, a TV presenter who killed herself in 2014 following a campaign of cyber-bullying against her on Twitter, the powers were expanded to include revenge porn. It was later found out that she had a long history of depression.[8]
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CONCLUSION
Today, we are all under the aegis of Social Media. This dynamism needs establishment of articulate laws. This is an unregulated territory, and there is a gaping blind-spot that allows certain forbidden activities like trolling, offensive roasting, social media trials to go undetected, which shall certainly escalate with availability of the internet and social media, respectively. Certain laws are women oriented due to the nature of offence in history, but with time need to be made gender neutral. Awareness about the atrocities is vital in order to hunt for a solution. As avid users of the internet knowledge about certain websites such as who is.net, who is lookup.net is requisite. These websites provide information about any domain name or website. Websites such as what is my IP.net or IP lookup.net provide information of your own IP address and help detect proxies. The solution to most social media atrocities is only a proper legal framework that disseminates awareness about the law and people must be held accountable in trial which unprecedently goes over social media as a contempt of court and even defamation in certain cases. The sectoral legislations must thereof be confined under one roof .Drawing inspiration from countries around the globe strong impactful legislation and execution of laws for social media is the want of the hour.
[1] Information
Technology act, 2000 No.21 of 2000. (India)
[2] Indian Penal Code,1860, no 45 of 1860 (India)
[3] (2017) 10 SCC 1
[4] Microsoft Releases Digital
Civility Index on Safer Internet Day, Microsoft News
Center India (Feb. 5, 2019), retrived from:https://perma.cc/545B-7YVN.
[5] Jack Godman, BBC
News (August 1 2020), retrived from: https://www.bbc.com/news/53601027
[6] Fake sting Uma khurrana withdraws defamation case.Times of india (October 22, 2008 )
[7] Social media should not
play judge and jury, 17 year old Manav Singh is testament to it, I diva. Com
(May 15, 2020)
[8]
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47135058
feb 122020 bbc
About Author
I am Vinoti Sethia, a 4th year law student from KES law college,Mumbai. I have been an active participant of moot courts, debates, MUNs .I am a free spirited person who believes that awareness is fundamental for change. One thing that I have inferred from law college is that law cannot be construed between four walls and bulky books but it is more about the thrive to bring about a coherent change.As the technology driven generation and avid users of social media it is essential to acknowledge its atrocities and act upon the same.
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