Frame guidelines to reduce social media misuse

As the government thinks the misuse of social media is increasing in the country, several preventive measures are taken to curb it.

Earlier, various restrictions have been imposed on WhatsApp to stop spreading the fake news.

The social media platform had to bring various measures including restriction of forwards to five members.

Now the Apex Court asked the central government to frame statutory guidelines to reduce the misuse of social media.

Yesterday, the court asked the government to file an affidavit within three weeks to give a definite timeline for these guidelines.

A bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose stated that some social media platforms are not able to trace the originator of online content or a message. Hence, the government should frame specific guidelines to curb misuse.

The court expressed that courts are not competent to decide on this issue and the government must come up with proper steps.

In this regard, the court said that if there is a technology to do something, then there will be a technology to stop it. And that saying there’s no technology to track online crime does not remove responsibility.

The Union Minister for Telecom, IT and Law Ravi Shankar Prasad said there is a need for homegrown technology to drive to digital heights in the country.

He said that Facebook wanted to establish Free Basics in India. However, when observed closely, it is not as attractive as it appears because all personal data needs to be provided to the company for free.

Hence, India needs homegrown technology. The country should become a Centre of data refinery with safe and secure conditions. The data should be easily available without compromising privacy.

Moreover, it should have more utility and innovative. To acquire this, the country needs good FDI in this sector.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay  (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/photos/social-media-social-keyboard-icon-4140959/