Govt has no issues with using social media, but with its abuse and misuse

Govt has no issues with using social media, but with its abuse and misuse

We welcome dissent. We welcome criticism and that criticism can extend to the Prime Minister, to all the Ministers and to all the government, senior minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said

While speaking at the India Economic Conclave, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressed his concerns over the misuse and abuse of social media. The minister expressed his concern that the government has no issue with the use of social media but with the misuse and abuse of it.

Regarding the victimization on social media, the minister said that the government is the voice of those and for curbing the victimization, it wants platforms to set up grievance redressal mechanism in the country.

Speaking about the redressal mechanism, the minister said, "You must have grievance redressal mechanisms so that if anyone has a complaint then that complaint can be registered there. The issue is not the use of social media. The issue is abuse and misuse of social media".

On criticism, the minister said, "The Prime Minister has been the biggest victim of the falsehood campaign for more than 20 years based on utter lies... We welcome dissent. We welcome criticism and that criticism can extend to the Prime Minister, to all the Ministers and to all the government."

The comments from the minister come up after the government announced regulations for regulating the OTT platforms and the social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter to remove any contentious content soon. The regulation requires the OTT platform to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.

Speaking on the rules, the minister said that the rules were made after consultation with the stakeholder for one and half years and understanding the rogue elements on social media. Appreciating the move, the minister said that it is the first time that the government has come up with such digital and online media operating rules. The rules also make it mandatory for social media to identify the originator of the messages which are anti-national and threat to sovereignty.

The minister said, "Let me ask you a question. Is it not a fact that on the same issue on the same day in the same area around the same time lakhs of messages are circulated, become viral. We are asking who did this mischief. Who started the mischief? That's all. We are not going to see the content. The content is already in the public domain. We want to see who in India started this mischief. If someone has sent from abroad, then who started it in India."