Is Social Media the Double-edged Sword?

The government now wants to keep a track on the conversations happening on the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc. It wants to know whom you 'like,' what you 'share' with your 'friends', who are in your 'circle', who 'follows' you and whom you follow, and what you write on other's 'walls.' And it is now official. The center has written to the department of telecom, asking it to “ensure effective monitoring of Twitter and Facebook”, a fact that Milind Deora, the minister of state for communications and information technology, acknowledged a few days ago in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. He spoke, in particular, about access to 'encrypted data' on social networking sites, but did not elaborate on the subject.

The very thought of being watched by someone you do not want to be watched by, makes many a social media user very uncomfortable. The intention of the government might be very sincere and honest, and probably, it doesn't want to invade anyone's private walls without sufficient reasons, but, it certainly raised a few eyebrows. Justifying the intention of the government, Pavan Duggal, a seasoned cyber law expert says, “It could be a noble objective, and the government would perhaps like to maintain the sovereignty of the nation, maintain security, and perhaps want to make sure social media is not misused.”

Social Media: The Way You Look At it

However snooping on social media does not seem to be as easy as it sounds. It could act like a double-edged sword unless and until the (proposed) deeds of the government are legally supported by competent laws. The current year saw many global developments involving social media, that changed the history.

rom bringing down governments in many autocratic nations to create maximum chaos in world's one of the most developed countries; from blood bath caused by terrorists to one of the most peaceful movements to curb corruption in the world's largest democracy, social media has been playing a role-somewhere big, somewhere small. The recent Totenham riots in UK, which have cast a shadow over BlackBerry Messenger and Twitter because of the way they have been used by 'goons in the hood' to beat the police, certainly calls for some serious thoughts on regulation of social media. While BlackBerry messages appealed people to arm themselves with hammers to loot stores and bring cars along to carry the stolen goods, many tweets were posted to unite rioters.

“Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But, it can also be used for ill,” a 'guilty-looking' British Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament during the chaotic situation in the country.

Any country would jump to take actions on any medium fueling this kind of fire. Media reports in London said that 8 people in Cheshire had been arrested as suspects for encouraging rioting via the social media.

In India too, we have come across situations where closed group social messaging has played havoc. BlackBerry encrypted messaging service was used by terrorists during 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai to communicate as other services were blocked by the state. Since then, the Indian government has been urging Research-In-Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry, to provide them with messages in a readable format or stop services.

But incidents of social media being used in a positive frame and to bring historical revolution are no less. In the recent bomb blast in Mumbai on July 13, social media played a very crucial role in helping friends and family of victims when cellular networks had been jammed for security reasons. The Twitter handle '#here2help' was one messaging vehicle that urged hundreds of netizens to help victims stranded after the blast. The ongoing movement against corruption led by 74-year-old Anna Hazare is another classic example of social media being used to mobilize people and unite against an issue in a non-violent and peaceful way.

Incidents like this could have triggered the Indian government to track the social media but, along with this, there arises many a question. Can social networks become a real threat to democratic states, even as they serve as vehicles for revolutions against totalitarian regimes? Should they be subjected to state scrutiny?

Opinions vary, not on the intention but the way it can be executed.

Where Could the Govt Falter?

Currently, the Indian Telegraph Act, the Indian Information Technology (IT) Act 2008 (amendments were introduced in the IT Act 2000) and the rules notified under this Act on April 2011, give the government the power to monitor, intercept and even block online conversations and websites. Therefore “The Indian government can, and should, monitor conversations and websites if it believes the content can harm the security, defence, sovereignty and integrity of the country,” says Pavan Duggal. But there are issues with it. “How do you ensure this?” asks Duggal, who also is a Supreme Court Lawyer.

Most of the Indian laws are limited to Indian territories and firms like Facebook, Twitter and Google have their servers outside India. Hence, the jurisdictions are different, and Indian laws will not apply. Twitter, for instance, states in its guidelines for law enforcement, “Non-public information about Twitter users is not released, unless we have received a subpoena, court order, or other valid legal process documents.” Google+, Facebook too have similar 'Privacy Policies'.
“However, the Section 2(1)(w) of the Indian IT Act 2008 includes the term 'intermediary' that refers to any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits electronic record...,” explains Duggal. He says social media firms like Facebook as well as its users are referred by this term 'intermediary'. So, legally government can monitor and prosecute an erroneous firm.

But the act does not elaborate further. “But the problem is what would the government monitor on social networking sites-usage of keywords, all users, just the suspects or leave it totally to the service provider?” questions Duggal. Further, the IT Act is silent on the specifics of the social media. The Act does not specify about the archival as well as the retrieval of the conversations on social networks, and even if the data is stored or archived then how long will it be preserved, have not been defined. “Most importantly, there is no mention of whether the conversations on social networks which would ultimately be stored at a server not located in India, can be used for legal proceedings here,” tells Duggal pointing at the flaws in the Act.

There is another issue. While the government is mulling to track the social media, it is simultaneously planning to introduce the Right to Privacy Bill to protect its citizens. The draft of this Bill, reportedly, would allow for penalization of 'unauthorized interception', regardless of whether one is in the government.

“Hence, there could be many legal challenges if the government does not go about its task of monitoring users in a transparent manner,” cautions Duggal.

Gyana Ranjan Swain
gyanas@cybermedia.co.in