In the 21st century, almost everyone has access to the internet. As most of the people use social media and have an internet connection, we are all netizens. Like the real world, social media also has policies that censor the explicit content which is harmful or has a wrong impact on the people. Social media plays a major role in public life. Yet there is a tide of misinformation and bad information, driven mainly through online social platforms, which is threatening to undermine public trust and cause further anxiety for people.
As people use social media this much, everyone’s information is available easily on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. And we receive emails like winning lottery etc. are scams. There is a threat to our privacy when we provide our details to such untrusted sources. Some rackets hack people’s devices and snoop into their personal lives.
Also, there are incidents like sharing child pornography and obscene material over social media via messaging apps. And in some cases, there is cyber-bullying of students and celebrities via social media for defaming them or for revenge purposes.
As we have seen, there are incorrect pieces of information that are spread daily on social media. Currently, we are going through a worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 where misinformation can be harmful. During emergencies of this magnitude, the need for trusted, factual, evidence-based reporting is more crucial than ever.
The companies have their policies of Censoring Harmful Content. But there is still the necessity of a Social Media Censor Board as there are many political and government-related information spreading through social media where there is a need of trusted a source.
But features like WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption make it difficult for the government to track the source of information. And removing the encryption may cause a threat to privacy.
Some of the people’s rights in the constitution may also be compromised like the ‘Freedom of Speech’. But it also makes social media a safe place for everyone.
Conclusion:
Censorship is at best a game of whack-a-mole because you can’t perfect speech. You can’t have good speech without bad speech and attempts to eradicate the latter lead to no speech at all, at least none that you can hear in public. In practice censorship just drives banned speech underground, where it gains prominence and is subject to far less scrutiny. And doing so makes us and everyone around us feel safe while using social media.
-Prachiti Chitale
