Daily Times

With great power comes great responsibility. The highest offices demand a high degree of duty but there is no such mantra in Modi’s government in India. Earlier, it had orchestrated a drama in Pakistan’s Balakot area while claiming how hundreds of “militants” were killed. Later, the whole story proved to be fake news as their attack had only destroyed trees and killed an innocent dead crow. The story doesn’t end here. Once again, India claimed that the jets of the Pakistani Air Force had been involved in the Panjshir valley of Afghanistan in support of the Taliban. Unsurprisingly, this whole narrative was also proved wrong as it was the scene out of a video game. It was all propagated through different tools of social media including Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. Although these tools were good inventions keeping in view the need for time and technology, excessive misuse has damaged mankind drastically. Spreading misinformation and fake news have become the hallmark of these social media platforms. There are a plethora of examples, especially in India, where such fake news routinely create chaos and unleash hatred in society through the platform of Facebook. These social media platforms are usually designed as addiction machines that are programmed to draw upon our emotions and retain our attention. Controversial news gets the natural attention of the audience because it is part of propaganda and agenda-setting.

Profit and earning maximum return remain the primary objectives of these social media platforms. They have nothing to do with truth or morality. Their only target is to get maximum clicks on their pages while forgetting about hatred and propaganda that is spread through them. Since India is a huge market and the social fabric of its population is knitted with hatred, particularly after BJP has come into power, such social media platforms earn maximum profits there. A former employee of Facebook, Frances Haugen, recently disclosed that Facebook keeps prioritising its growth “at all costs” over efforts to curb hate and harm on its platforms. Facebook in India has been selective in curbing hate speech and misinformation against Muslims, said the leaked documents of a former employee of Facebook. The anti-Muslim content goes unchecked and unstopped on Facebook in India while keeping the lives of Muslims in danger. The human rights organisations and the United Nations must play their role to tame India for using this modern way of spreading hatred in the wake of FATF.

Social media platforms are usually designed as addiction machines that are programmed to draw upon our emotions.

In today’s modern world, Facebook is also used as a political weapon. It is used during election campaigns to spread hate speech against opponents. Modi did the same during his campaign. Similarly, this platform is also used to suppress the voice of others and Modi did it in Kashmir. The same Facebook platform was used to spread hatred against Muslims during COVID-19 in India. It was propagated through Facebook pages that the Muslim community had caused the deadly virus; inciting severe anti-Muslim riots. In India, false child abduction rumours on Facebook and Whatsapp have incited mobs to lynch innocent victims. According to the Wall Street Journal, the provocative content on Facebook spiked 300 per cent above the previous levels in 2020. As many as 53 people were killed in India after rumours were disseminated through Facebook and Whatsapp in 2020. Hindu and Muslim users in India were subjected to a large amount of content that encourages conflict, hatred and violence. The BJP of Modi uses the tool of Facebook to spread its hatred and venom against Muslims that is the real trademark of its politics. He used this platform during his election campaign too by influencing his close relationship with the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. India is, undoubtedly, a huge market in terms of both technology and finance. Therefore, these profit-making entities don’t take any action against the hate content there. India is Facebook’s largest market with over 340 million users while nearly 400 million Indians also use the company’s messaging service. But both have been accused of being vehicles to spread hate speech and fake news against minorities, especially Muslims.

These tools of social media were also misused in the Indian Occupied Kashmir where the one-sided story was disseminated while imposing curbs on the Kashmiri people for using these tools. In 2016, during a crackdown on protests in Kashmir, Facebook took down pages focusing on Kashmir and posts about the ongoing events. Journalists reported that videos of police brutality were also blocked. Academics and intellectuals also saw their accounts were blocked. Following the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status on 5 August 2019, India cut off IIOJK from the world by suspending all communication modes. Social media giants were quick to remove posts, block videos and shut down accounts trying to shed light on the dire situation in the region. On 4 September 2019, a popular Facebook page with 37,000 followers named “Stand with Kashmir” was blocked. There were reports that some Facebook pages operating from Pakistan were also blocked in the aftermath of violence in Kashmir by Indian forces. Some Facebook pages paying tribute to Burhan Wani were also blocked by the social media company. As many as 200 Pakistani Twitter handles were suspended corresponding to the lockdown in Kashmir.

This unjust and one-sided action should be stopped. There is a dire need to question global powers by judiciously exploiting the Indian nexus with tech giants. International watchdogs must come forward and campaign to ban Facebook and likes to save future generations from their menace. There is a need to have an impartial oversight board and a system of regulatory processes to regulate digital content, create accountability and empower tech companies to create tools responsibly. The technology must be used with utmost responsibility as high offices demand huge responsibility. The world also must take notice of India’s misusing of social media tools because it is spreading hate in the world through it.

The writer is an old Aitchisonian who believes in freedom of expression, a freelance columnist, entrepreneur and social activist.