Is social media going unsocial?

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Getting social with social media is perhaps, passe. From toongate to sleazegate, a new phenomenon has arrived. Thanks to digital technology. As it tries to push the privacy barriers, the social parlance is getting a new dimension.

Till recently, telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had been the subject of public mockery and hypocrisy, as he talked tough over Web regulation.

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And the recent social farce has done much embarrassment to Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who has been stripped of his position, after the alleged sex video involving him went viral on YouTube and Facebook.

The social media facts are startling too. There is 300 per cent Y-o-Y growth in YouTube video downloads in India. Nearly 25 million Facebook users in India upload 55 millions images on monthly basis.

Social media networks are flooded with millions of comments, scraps and messages as well as images, every hour, but the real problem lies in when such speech leads to derogatory or iniquitous presentation.

The IT Act 2000, amended in 2008, empowers cyber litigations. Actions under legal ambit, however, can be taken against foreign Websites too.

With the intermediary guideline rules released in 2011, the government put social sites in a tight spot. It reads: "the intermediaries shall not knowingly host or publish any information or initiate the transmission, for any information from 'users' that is grossly harmful."

The new rule defines the objectionable content, as something harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, or otherwise unlawful in any manner whatever.

Law minister Salman Khurshid was quoted recently as saying that they don't think that the government is in a vulnerable or helpless situation when it comes to policing social networks.

The effective legislation, Khurshid said, is in place which gave the government ample power to restrict social media whenever it violated the law of the land.

A senior apex court counsel and managing partner at ICT law firm Praveen Dalal feels that the present circumstances (toongate and sleazegate) may force the government to rethink for larger benefits of all concerned.

Though he believes that there is sufficient regulation of social media Websites, he still feels there is a need to reformulate the Cyber law altogether rather than piecemeal work which is causing the entire problem.

"Personally, I believe that Indian Cyber law is outdated and it needs urgent repeal," Dalal said. However, he has been suggesting reforms for the last five years. Dalal also feels that the Indian government is indifferent towards this much needed requisite.