JAY JOSHI
The world of social media is a weird place. Not only do people express themselves here is ways ranging from polite to outrageous, but also, there are a number of fake and parody accounts of various celebrities, and there accounts have created problems for the areal celebrities themselves. Plus, there is cyber-bullying and related issues which also arise from fake accounts on social media. Perhaps concerned by this, a public interest litigation has been filed with the Supreme Court seeking direction to the government of India to ascertain the feasibility of linking Aadhaar with social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter and web news portals.
Regulating social media has always been a sensitive topic. Some see it as a medium of free expression while others seek censorship ciiting a number of drawbacks. The same concerns reflect again when discussing whether linking Aadhar to social media is a good move. “I believe it is a good idea. Security is very important, especially for women,” says Snehal Chandak, head of a digital marketing firm based in Pune. “There are a number of fake accounts which bully women, and blackmail them by photoshopping stolen pictures. Linking Aadhar to social media will help neutralise fake accounts and improve women’s safety,” says Chandak. This move will not affect humour pages. It will only help create a truly genuine online identity, she adds.
Advocate Hrishikesh Kadam, an independently practicing lawyer from Canacona, however, disagrees and raises more serious questions. “Aadhar was meant to be a unique identity card for people who do not have any other identity documents. I do not see the point in linking it to anything. By making Aadhar compulsory, you are in a way denying access to people to certain resources. Otherwise you could just keep the Aadhar as one single multi-purpose card, and get rid of documents such as PAN card, driving license etc,” he states. “Secondly, social media is just an expression of one’s thoughts online. Fake accounts are one of the many demerits of this medium, and people can always create fake accounts from abroad or fool the system into thinking that these accounts are from foreign countries. What do we do then?” questions the lawyer.
Panaji-based trend analyst Clive De Souza holds the opinion that the issue does not have any merit. “Fake accounts and fake news is indeed a serious issue, and linking Aadhar could help track the wrongdoers. But given that social networking companies are situated outside India, getting them to agree to such measures is tough task. If India wants tough regulations on social media, it should perhaps create its own social network like China. But since India is a democracy, I wonder how much popular a ‘sarkari’ social network will be,” he quips.
At the time of writing this article, the Supreme Court was yet to take up this matter for consideration. That said, we could have an entirely new debate on what impact such measures will have on ‘digital cells’ of political parties, especially during the time of elections.
