Need to Make Peace With the Social Media

Mass Media has always been the agent of change, the forerunner of the right to freedom of expression. To the list of Print and electronic media has been added Social media which seems most effective in stirring revolution. What Print and electronic media had been trying for decades social media has achieved in years. It has upheld the right to free expression in the sarcastic democracy of China , it made possible the Arab Spring thus, helping the rise of masses against autocratic dictators. However, the rise of social media has brought its own challenges as was earlier witnessed by England during the London Riots of 2011 and now have been witnessed by India since August 15, 2012.

Following the Kokrajahar Violence in Assam in the month of July and early August sinister SMSs started making rounds in cities of Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai etc. that Muslims were gearing up to take revenge for the Assam violence after Eid. Fueled by these rumors August 15th, 16th and 17th witnessed mass exodus of north east population from these cities to their hometowns. Rough estimates say around 40,000 people fled from these cities in the three days. Railways had to run special trains to the ever increasing crowd on railway stations. What was started by SMSs was furthered by social networking sites and other websites where images of Tibet earthquake and Gujarat riots were morphed and posted as pictures of Assam Riots. 

All this had been going on before 15th August and exodus started on 15th August, but the govt. woke up only on 17th August, that too just to release an advisory to social networking sites and ISPs to ban inflammatory content on priority basis without giving any specific details. This made ISPs judges of what inflammatory content was and hence there was no standard control on inflammatory contents and they kept making rounds on internet. Later govt. gave ISPs a list of web addresses and accounts to be blocked but, the list was ill researched. Many of the web addresses didn't exist and a no. of accounts that featured in the list were unrelated to the inflammatory content. This gave rise to another controversy in midst of an ongoing crisis. Govt. attempt looked like a move to censor its critics.

Thus, the challenges were posed by social media in handling law and order and govt. was correct on its standing of limiting right to expression to establish social order, even 'International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights' to which India is a signatory gives govt. this right. However, it reacted too late and did too little that too in an ill directed manner. Social media poses lots of challenges as it has immense possibilities of mobilizing public opinion. This same potential of social media should make it a darling of govt. as it can help it calm the public and reach out to it in times of crisis without making much effort.

This is age of social networking and any attempt to censor it will be met by large scale social protest as will go into public as attack on freedom of expression. Hence, Governments should learn to live with it. Instead of complaining about its recklessness govt. should use its reach to connect with the new generation that somehow connects very less with the democratic process of India.  Social media should be proactively monitored and steps should be taken beforehand to stop a situation from turning into a crises.