The move comes against the background of the tussle between the government and messaging app WhatsApp over the issue of fake news
With the Lok Sabha elections in sight, and the Election Commission considering bringing social media sites at par with traditional media, bringing it under the ambit of paid news, political parties are likely to be the worst hit. The IT cell heads of political parties have, however, welcomed the move.
"Any move by the Election Commission is welcome," the head of BJP's IT Cell, Amit Malviya told DNA. "As a responsible political party, we will stand by any decision they take."
Congress social media president Divya Spandana said that they support the move. "Our party has never tried to win any election through fake news circulated on social media. The move is a positive one, and we welcome it," she said.
Recently, an inter-ministerial panel, while firming up recommendations on how social media sites can fuel fake news and violence that can ensue from this, asked platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook to ensure there are dedicated grievance officers to look into complaints. Guidelines for cyber policing were also recommended, and the platforms were asked to suggest a comprehensive portal to tackle objectionable content. The recommendations will be sent to a group of ministers, who will send it to the PM.
Osama Manzar, founder and director of the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), says the problem of fake news and misinformation always raises its head around election time. It is just that with high penetration of smartphones and social media, the circulation of fake news has become faster and wider.
"There has been constant effort by the government to regularise online content, and it is unfair to categorise social media platforms as paid news for political reasons. This will only jeopardise the democratic status the social media platforms rest on, and probably even increase the problem of fake news," he said, adding, "The government cannot repeatedly rely on technological solutions when what we see ahead of us is a social problem."
The move comes against the background of the tussle between the government and messaging app WhatsApp over the issue of fake news.
On August 27, the Supreme Court issued notices to WhatsApp and Indian authorities, seeking their responses over a petition questioning the way the mobile application operates in India and its plan to launch a payment platform with no physical presence in the country. The notices have been issued to the ministries of Law, Home Affairs, Electronics and IT, Finance and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, along with the US company.
Recently, WhatsApp started a radio campaign to create awareness about misinformation circulated on the platform. It has also tied up with Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) to create awareness among its users about the need to verify information. It has cited encryption and issue of privacy of users for not offering traceability of origin of messages.
In India, WhatsApp has a user base of over 200 million out of a total of 1.5 billion users globally and is one of the fastest growing markets for the company.
WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels had met minister for electronics and IT on August 21, wherein he was supposed to offer a technological solution to trace the origin of messages as well as have an entity and a grievance officer in India. WhatsApp has said it has a local entity in India and has a grievance officer for India, who is based in California.
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