Tweeting trouble
×
The likes of Twitter, WhatsApp should work with govt to develop regulations rather than question them
The unseemly public spat between social media companies and the government over the new IT rules has once again turned the focus on achieving the right balance between the sovereign’s right to regulate online social media and the latter’s legitimate desire to protect user data and free speech on its platforms. In India, social media entities are largely unregulated. While this supports the free flow of data, it has also led to the rise of online hate-mongering, abusive language, and harassment. The government had notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in February with the objective of making social media take more responsibility for the content uploaded on their respective platforms.
Retired Supreme Court Judge Bellur N Srikrishna (80), who headed many commissions, including one to probe the Mumbai riots as then sitting Bombay HC judge and the 6th central pay commission, has questioned vanishing of the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill he had submitted to the Union Ministry