Crack down on objectionable content pro-actively: Centre

Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 7

The Centre continues to mount pressure on social media groups in India to ‘deploy pro-active tools’ to identify objectionable content and remove them from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, Whatsapp and YouTube.

Senior government sources have told The Tribune that the government wants these platforms to check content that could be obscene or incite violence. Sources claim regular conversations between team leads and representatives of these groups and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) bureaucrats on the matter is proving productive. A senior delegation led by Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and including officials from other security agencies has held meetings with these social media platforms to review the steps taken.

“These sometimes fortnightly interactions have been successful. Complaints rate has gone up from 60 to 80 percent in less than two months,” an MHA official said.

Social media platforms in India have come under severe criticism with several mob lynching or rioting cases triggered reportedly by fake news or hate messages propagated through Whatsapp and other platforms inciting fear and violence in different parts. Officials says that the “utility of these platforms is not disputed”, but there are concerns about enforcing directives issued to them under relevant provisions of the IT Act and Telegraph Act.

Directives include blocking or removing objectionable content and if an offence is made out to help identify the account and facilitate the prosecution process. Social media giants are reluctant to share consumer details to protect data privacy and to prevent policing under the pretext of security. Whatsapp, which made some specific changes that included limiting to five the number of contacts that a message can be forwarded to at one time, has also undertaken a campaign to spread awareness about Dos and Don’ts through advertisements in national media. 

According to sources, in one of the recent interactions last week the industry leaders had with Gauba, the UK model was suggested whereby Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and some NGOs have been roped in to curb the social media menace. “We have asked them to have grievance redressal officers in India, as some of them do not have yet,” an official added.