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Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien attacked Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Shankar Prasad by expressing concern over social media platforms being used to spread rumours and fake news, on Thursday, 26 July, in the Parliament.
It is a party that came to power in 2014 who created a culture of digital mobs. That used social media to condition minds and has made fake news into their master hobby.Derek O’Brien, MP, TMC
The government will strengthen the legal framework to ensure that significant social media and instant messaging service providers targeting Indian users do not deprive them of the right to hold proceedings in India, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Responding to the members' concerns during a calling attention notice on the misuse of social media and propagation of fake news causing unrest and violence, he said the government was seriously considering appropriate rules requiring all social media platforms to locate their grievance officers in India.
"The duty of such grievance officer should cover not only to receive grievances on real time basis but also to inform law enforcement agencies," Prasad said.
WhatsApp, he said, has informed that it will introduce fact-checking and fake news verification mechanisms to help people check the veracity of content on the platform.
Earlier, members including Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad had raised serious concern over the incidents relating to abuse of social media leading to mob lynchings, with some of them even accusing the government of inaction.
In his response, Prasad said "these (incidents) are deeply painful and regrettable, as well as a matter of deep concern for the government. The government has taken prompt action".
However, he said "a challenge has emerged (but) in its wake, we cannot abolish the existence of social media. India has emerged as a digital power. Even a common Indian is armed with the power of information and can raise questions.
"We should see both aspects. Social media is helping many students, small groups are exchanging information, farmers are using it. We need to introspect if you question the relevance of social media."
He said the government planned to issue directives in public interest requiring all social media platforms to ensure that they "do not become vehicles for promoting hatred, terrorism, money laundering, mob violence and rumour mongering."
These platforms should provide technological solutions so that verified fake news and provocative messages can be filtered by technical solutions. They should also "bring in a more effective mechanism for receiving grievances and report to the law enforcement agencies. They should seek to provide the facility of verifying fake news on the platform itself," he said.
Observing that the government does not regulate content appearing on social networking platforms, Prasad said these platforms, however, are required to follow due diligence in accordance with the Information Technology Act and the Rules.
During the debate on the issue, Derek O' Brien posed four questions to the BJP regarding fake news on social media platforms.
If Facebook brought down Postcard news and we all know the content, then why are BJP MPs and MLAs now demanding that it should be brought back. India’s most bibulous hatred-spreading Twitter handle IP Patel is his name. Why was he called to the BJP president’s social media network last week? Minister, if these big WhatsApp groups are creating all these problems please get WhatsApp to disclose to you at least 1,000 such groups that are creating these problems. This would help you in finding out who they are.Derek O’Brien, MP, TMC
(With inputs from PTI)
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