These lines are penned only to generate a debate among us. But as a nation with almost 450 million young people, are we ready to debate anything without involving allegations, blaming each other, casting aspersions of all kind, bringing in elements of caste, class, religion, gender, age and proving our acquired inputs in the name of knowledge over our heritage, family, social values and self discipline? Healthy debate in all spheres, be it political or moral or economic or social, seems to escape from the vocabulary argumentative Indians.
Participation in social media activities is an excellent way to stay abreast with global, personal and community happenings. But at the same time, a recent study done by an independent think tank has estimated that during 2018-2019 social media including Facebook, Google, Instagram and seven other majors have published 8,77,000 elaborate statements on political and religious issues which are partial, fundamentalistic or divisive; have circulated 3.7 million forwards that antagonise values of one or the other community, one or other political party, one or other religious group and all right thinking individuals and have allowed entry of news and individual statements to the number of 7.1 million persons which contain wrong and distorted information of note.
A country like Australia (in western standards, India must be classified always in the lower ladder of classification of everything - from corruption to cleanliness - as the methodology and parameters of all these studies are prepared on the preconceived basics originating from the West) has just passed final amendments in its Parliament in February 2021 which makes digital giants like Facebook and Google pay for news in Australia, thus becoming prudent, careful and to a certain extent principled. News Media Bargaining Code has to be negotiated and agreed by these global digital social media giants. In fact finally Facebook has to bend down and lift its ban on Australians accessing and sharing its news, fearing loss of revenue and cascading impact of Australian steps benefiting it’s agreeable rivals. Every student and NGO Activist must read the Australian developments and compare the same with Indian realities being dominated by monopolistic, unrestrained , cash hungry digital giants here.
Right to information and free-speech are the biblical spirit of democratic existence. We all must value this to make our young democracy prosperous and a superpower soon. But before we achieve that, as contributing Indian citizens, our right to information and free speech must be in line with :-
A country like India is still burdened by a huge population of illiterate, poor and rural Indians. Hence information flow must keep their interest in mind and formulate an inclusive platform to bring unity and cohesion of thoughts expressed or action called for.
Hurting religious sentiments, regional nuances, established traditions and individual leaders on unrelated personal criteria should be avoided as a practice of individual directive principles of ethical policy. With rights comes responsibilities and duties. Social activists, NGOs, moral leadership and inter-clan or sect heads must educate people to understand their rights along with their moral, political and social obligations in ‘Unity in Diversity’.
Debates must arise. Healthy debate abets growth. Debates spurs intelligence and intellectual integrity. But we all must respect disciplined way of approaching issues logically. Issues in a country like India originates from the powe r elite due to diversity of population and middle-class scheduling to free itself from greater political and social participation. Hence we all must wait, study, analyse before we explode.
Digital media giants must be told about the limits of the news sharing and individual participation framework. In the name of freedom of expression and thoughts, ‘anything and everything’ must not continue that creates divisions, rifts, governance problems and biases.
This is only a paper to start a debate. In our Foundation, we strongly believe in reaching out to the thought leaders and create or provide a platform for such an important issue. Indian reality is the only one that assembles our rights, duties and responsibilities as true Indians.
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