SYED KHALIQUE AHMED
NEW DELHI, JUNE 19
After making a big chunk of the Indian media – print as well as TV – fall in line, the BJP government registered the first criminal case against Twitter Inc. on June 17 as Twitter, along with other social media giants like Facebook and Whatsapp, has so far resisted the government pressure to comply with Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, or IT Rules, in short.
The new IT Rules were announced by the Central government on February 25. The Centre had given three month’s time to social media platforms to comply with the rules that expired on May 25.
While Facebook has said that it would comply with the IT Rules, Whatsapp challenged the new rules in the Delhi High Court. Twitter was on May 31 issued a notice by Delhi High Court over ‘non-compliance’ of IT Rules in response to which the Twitter said that it had complied with the law. But, the microblogging site, simultaneously issued a media statement saying that it was concerned about the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people it served in India. The petition against Twitter was filed by advocate Amit Acharya.
In a strong reaction, the government said that Twitter’s statement was “unfortunate, totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies”.
According to new IT rules, social media apps are provided protection as “intermediaries” if they comply with the new rules. This means the social media platform will not be responsible for the posts by users. Only the users of the social media platforms will be held responsible for their posts and action will be taken against them only. But if the social media platforms do not comply with the new rules, they will lose the protection available to “intermediaries” under the IT Act and they will also be prosecuted as per laws applicable to the users of the social media platform.
Why the FIR Against Twitter Inc
It is on this basis that the Ghaziabad district police in Uttar Pradesh registered a criminal case against Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, along with social media users including Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Mashkoor Usmani, Shama Mohammed, journalists Rana Ayub, Arfa Khanum Sherwani and Mohammed Zubair who had posted tweets regarding an alleged video clip of 72-year-old Abdus Samad Saifi being assaulted by about half a dozen persons.
As it appears to be a case of ‘chastising’ the social media giant, Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari has been asked by the Ghaziabad police to report within seven days to Loni Border Police Station where the FIR has been lodged.
The Ghaziabad police has warned Maheshwari of his arrest if the Twitter official fails to present himself before the police within the time given to him.
Incident nothing to do with Islamophobia: Police
The reason for the filing of FIR is that while the old Muslim man in the video alleges that he was tortured because of his religion and his beard was cut, police say that the incident has nothing to do with Islamophobia. The police says that Saifi had sold out ‘taveez’(amulet) to some persons which did not work and hence, he was attacked and so, the incident had no communal angle.
The Police FIR says that since the incident had no communal angle, the users committed a crime by circulating the “false” video through social media and it amounted to creating animosity between Hindus and Muslims as it was retweeted by thousands of people. The FIR says that statements made by users through social media also indicates a “criminal conspiracy” as the accused including journalists and political persons did not try to verify the truth in the case.
Victim’s son rejects police claim
But Baboo Saifi, elder son of the old man, rejected the police claim, alleging that the police version is concocted. He said that his father or family has nothing to do with amulets. “We are Saifis and our traditional business is carpentry. Also, the police claim that Muslims were also involved in assaulting my father is also false. It is unbelievable that a Muslim will cut off the beard which is an identity of Muslims”, he Baboo said. Baboo told media that police did not record his statements and they added a different version into the FIR.
Police did not act when social media was misused to spread hate against Muslims after coronavirus outbreak in India
While the police have taken such a drastic action against Twitter on a single video in which police claim is contested by the victim’s family, police remained mute spectator when the Twitter and other social media platforms were excessively misused by rightist groups to create hatred against Muslims by spreading a totally false narrative that held Tablighi Jamaat and indirectly the entire Muslim community, responsible for spreading coronavirus infection throughout the country.
The misinformation campaign launched through social media campaigns not only resulted in mob attacks on Muslims in several part of the country, including Delhi but Muslim traders were also boycotted because of the false tweets and videos.
Many Muslims also lost private jobs because of this false campaign. They were called “corona carriers” and “corona spreaders” by hate-mongers through social media but police never felt that it amounted to a conspiracy to create animosity between communities. Even recently, some right-wingers in Ghaziabad district used highly offensive remarks against Prophet Mohammed that was widely shared on social media but the Ghaziabad police did not even register an FIR.
Do the new IT Rules aim to curb dissemination of information criticising government’s policies and action?
The basic idea behind bringing the new IT rules is widely believed to curb the flow of information through social media that contains criticism of the BJP government’s policies and actions at the Centre and in various states. With majority of the newspapers and TV channels having succumbed to the government earning themselves the sarcastic nickname of being “Godi media” (sitting in the lap of the government) and only publicizing the views of the government, the opposition parties, social and political activists as also the commoners had the only option of using the social media platforms to share their views on government’s policies and actions.
The social media thus became a powerful and fastest vehicle of dissemination of information not only by political parties opposed to the government but also by commoners not only within India but also everywhere in the world because there are no boundaries in the internet world.
So, the Modi government, that has strong detestation of its criticism, came with new IT rules to control social media with a view to curbing free flow of information through social media and digital platforms.
In fact, several well-known journalists and TV anchors, who were forced to quit their organisations because they refused to accept the diktats of their managements to write or air pro-government news stories, either started their own YouTube channels or launched news portals to keep people informed of the truth with regard to government’s policies.
And their stories, in text as well as video forms, are shared through social media attracting millions of readers and viewers. So, the government’s gagging of the traditional media by using its leverage with regard to supply of government advertisements and also starving them of private advertisements by using its influence over the corporates, failed to yield the desired result because the people got to know the truth about the government functioning and its policies through social media platforms.
It will not be an exaggeration to say that it was only through social media people came to know about the government’s massive failure of handling the situation during Covid-19 first wave as also second wave that resulted in death of about four lakh people so far.
It was the social media again that exposed the disposal of unburnt or half-burnt bodies into the river Ganges in UP or burying the bodies of Covid-19 victims just below one or two feet deep in the sandy bank of Ganga at several places in UP, with dogs digging them out and eating them.
It presented a very nasty scene that was never witnessed in the country, at least, in its memorable history. The social media, in fact, exposed the abject failure of the BJP government at the Centre as also in states wherever they are in power. The expose, no doubt, brought a bad name to BJP and Modi government internationally and this might have been partly responsible for its defeat in recent West Bengal assembly elections and also poor performance in other four assembly polls the results of which were declared on May 2.
(Syed Khalique Ahmed is the Chief Editor of indiatomorrow.net)
