nandakumar wrote:chetak wrote:
just do what the aussies have done: declare them a "publisher" and hold them liable for editorial decisions like banning, censoring, suspending and make them vulnerable to libel and defamation, to be tried in Indian courts and with no provision for arbitration just like Indian citizens can appeal a decision but cannot ask for arbitration outside the country.
or even better, suspend them for a month, suspend as in what they do to the handles of people they censor
If that doesn't work, ban the blighters from operating in India.
The Press and Registration of Books Act only holds the publisher responsible for what they publish and not for what they don't. So declaring social media as a publication is not of much help in what content they censor.
Obviously we need a new act/amendment to accommodate and regulate these phenomena of SM which are entirely disruptive and obviously were not covered in "The Press and Registration of Books Act". foreign entities simply cannot be allowed to influence any aspect of our internal dynamics, be it politics, religion or culture.
we do not interfere in their affairs and neither do we have the means to do so nor will they permit it, so why are we so keen to accept/allow their biased interference. It is turning out to be completely a one horse race controlled entirely by big tech because we have allowed them unrestricted access to the Indian market under some idiotic foreign construct of FOE.
if the SM selectively censor, block, promote and influence the content then it is what they publish because they have self appropriated to themselves the editorial function and use self generated editorial policies and algorithms to control viewership and hence the reach of any handle.
Also, they answer to no regulatory body anywhere in the world, leave alone India and its laws. They are the new digital colonizers, a law unto themselves where their "subjects" have nil recourse to appeal, review or even moderation.
Moreover, the application of their controls vary according to the handle and often bear no relationship to the actual nature of the so called "transgressions"
It's a clear cut case of "you show me the handle and I will show you the law" type of situation. Dictators and fascist regimes are envious of the ways in which these SM guys can get away with their totalitarian ways and BTW, the saudis are huge shareholders in many of these SM companies with disastrous consequences for India as we all saw during the shaheenbagh riots.
don't want to lose any election simply jack the crack or some other SM owning media baron poked his nose to get himself a different result.
During the US elections these SM guys did not allow dissemination of even newspaper articles critical of बायडनवा and his family members, one of whom is very appropriately named "hunter".
They very selectively censored journos and newspapers. Are we ready for them to do the same during our own Indian elections.
New Delhi: Social media giant Twitter has apologised in writing to a key parliamentary panel for wrongly showing Ladakh in China and has promised to correct the error by the month-end, the committee's chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi said on Wednesday., but they were told by the members that it was a criminal offence that questioned the sovereignty of the country and an affidavit must be submitted by Twitter Inc, not by its 'marketing arm' Twitter India.
