DNA Edit: Twitter Quandary - Platform has to differentiate between political slander

Twitter is faced with a predicament that it may not have confronted anywhere else. It has to choose between what constitutes greater blasphemy: Left or Right wing diatribes.

On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Technology asked Indian representatives of Twitter and officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to present themselves next week to discuss the subject of safeguarding citizens’ rights on social/digital media platforms.

That such a topic could even be put up for public discussion reveals the great diversity of India’s political discourse, not to mention her inherent democratic instincts. The genesis of the problem is curious, to say the least.

A self-styled Right-wing organisation christened Youth for Social Media Democracy, has been campaigning for some time, protesting against what it calls offensive and abusive Left-wing writing. On February 3, this group actually hit the streets in Delhi, taking their protest to the next level.

In their reckoning, while irreverent Left-wing voices had not been taken off social media sites like Twitter, Right-wing comments had been proscribed, without assigning any reason. This group subsequently wrote to BJP MP Anurag Thakur, head of this parliamentary panel, who, in turn, decided to issue the summons.

All indications suggest that the forthcoming general election is going to be fought as much on social media as on the ground. Political parties have major plans to launch extensive campaigns on platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook, among others, and by the looks of it, the discourse is going to be no holds barred.

In a series of meetings, as well as through written communications in 2018 and this year, both the government and the Election Commission have laid down guidelines for social media platforms. The government has instructed them to enforce more stringent methods of censorship, wherein the source of news — particularly scurrilous posts — be identified.

Verification of the source of news or posts becomes important to ward off potential trouble makers. Last year, there were reports of riots, arson and lynching breaking out in parts of the country, on the basis of so-called fake news pedalled by miscreants.

While some critics have claimed that the government identifying the source of the news is tantamount to censorship, there is probably no way out, given the ever-expanding reach and influence of social media. The government also plans to put in place a panel, whose job it would be to oversee social media; in its reckoning, just as the PIB monitors print and electronic media, this panel will closely look at social media.

The Election Commission, on its part, has written to Facebook and Twitter to ensure that the poll code is not violated after the Model Code of Conduct kicks in. But the bigger challenge before Twitter is to be able to differentiate between Left and Right-wing slander. To decide on what remains on air and what does not, represents a huge mountain to climb, particularly in these difficult times.