Fake coins of social media.
According to Gresham's Law, counterfeit coins drive out good coins from circulation. Playgrounds have become vibrant again in Brazil after children banned the use of mobile phones. There is a need to bring strong laws to stop influencers who destroy society and family system.
Ankush Pandey
Ranveer Allahabadia, who made his career on the basis of social media, is now not appearing before the police due to fear of media. Just like in the movie Lagaan, all the players of Aamir Khan's village team run together towards the ball, similarly, in this case, after the police of three states, district court, women commission, human rights commission, Maharashtra government's culture ministry, information and broadcasting ministry and parliamentary committee, now the Supreme Court has also entered.
According to the old decisions of the Supreme Court, the investigation of FIRs registered in many states in this case can be transferred to one police station. Forbidden and shocking content is attracting the youth a lot. This controversy and media publicity is a profitable business model like clapping for abuse, where lakhs of people are becoming millionaires from the business of obscenity and vulgarity.
To understand this better, two recent developments need to be taken into consideration. First, 60 percent of the youth in Bihar are spending more than five hours daily making reels. The virus of craze for Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and OTT platforms has spread rapidly across the country. Therefore, most influencers are earning both fame and money from social media on the basis of cheap, objectionable, obscene and shameful content. Mockery of religion and family system also increases instant popularity. Uttar Pradesh Police has registered FIRs against 22 social media accounts and their operators for spreading misleading news about Maha Kumbh.
Second, the dominance of adult and pornographic content is increasing in OTT, social media and YouTube. Due to the lack of skills among the youth, India has become the largest market for social media consumption instead of a tech leader. This has led to poverty, unemployment, crime and Inequality is increasing. In many countries of Australia and Europe, strict laws have been made to protect children from the havoc of social media.
It is not constitutional to justify the abuses of influencers under the guise of Ram Rahim's parole and many other controversial cases. After Allahabadia's apology and the removal of the video by the organizers, their crime is automatically confirmed. Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to freedom of expression, but it should not hinder decency, morality and social order. In the Hicklin case in England in 1868 and the Roth case in America in 1957, the Supreme Court there considered obscenity to be relative to time and society. The Supreme Court has said in its new decision that calling a woman an illegitimate wife or a faithful mistress is not only anti-women but also a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution. Then why should influencers who destroy the future of children by using vulgar and abusive language get constitutional protection?
There was a provision of Section 66-A in the IT Act to prevent objectionable content on the Internet and social media. The Supreme Court had repealed that law in the year 2015 in the Shreya Singhal case. Despite many promises made by the then IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the government did not make any new legal arrangements in the last 10 years. As a result, the practice of arbitrary arrests by registering cases under IPC and now BNS has increased.
According to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, only the Central Government has the right to make laws in matters related to 'cyber and social media'.
Despite several orders of the Supreme Court and recommendations of parliamentary committees, the central government is not making effective laws. After the controversy in this case, the objectionable video was removed from YouTube, but in millions of other cases, American companies like YouTube do not take action without a court order. There is a need to ensure legal accountability of social media companies in India under IT intermediary rules.
Apart from society, the financial system is also troubled by influencers. Capital market regulator SEBI has demanded from the central government to get more rights to take action against illegal influencers from WhatsApp and Telegram. According to telecom companies, it is difficult to get rid of spam calls and cyber crime due to keeping telemarketers and OTT platforms out of the scope of TRAI's new rules. The Finance Ministry has issued an order against the government use of DeepSeek and other AI platforms. 200 apps from China and other countries were banned in India five years ago. Out of them, more than 36 banned apps are doing business in India through backdoor.
The rules that apply to TV and print media are also applicable to digital media. The IT Ministry has the authority to remove objectionable content and ban any app or website. Despite this, many people including NHRC are trying to take credit for removing objectionable videos from the show India's Got Talent. The parliamentary committee has summoned social media companies that interfered in several previous elections for questioning several times, but demanding Allahabadia and others to appear before the parliamentary committee in this case shows the failure of the police and judicial system.
According to Gresham's Law, fake coins drive good coins out of circulation. Ever since Brazil banned mobile phone usage by children, children's playgrounds have become vibrant again. Therefore, there is a need to bring in strong laws and effective regulators to stop the tsunami of dirty influencers that are destroying society and family systems. Such anti-social influencers should not get protection from politicians and government advertisements. Along with prosecuting them, banning them from social media for a long time would be logical as well as justifiable.
