Use of social media for dissent may have disastrous effect: CJI Chandrachud | India News

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Friday said the increasing adoption of private corporation-owned social media platforms as a medium by civil rights groups for dissent activism and expression of free speech could have a disastrous effect as these unaccountable mega entities almost become repository of powers earlier available to governments reined in by constitutions and electorate.
Delivering the Justice V M Tarkunde Memorial lecture on the topic – ‘Upholding Civil Liberties in the Digital Age: Privacy, Surveillance and Free Speech’, he said, “There is a flip side to adopting privately owned platforms as the medium for dissent, activism, and expression of free speech. With corporations wielding such immense power, there is an immense amount of trust placed on them to act as the arbiters of acceptable and unacceptable speech – a role that was earlier played by the state itself. “Warning of a disastrous impact on society, public and countries, he quoted a UN report that detailed how the Myanmar military used social media as a tool for ethnic cleansing.
“Unlike state actors, who are held accountable to the Constitution and the electorate, social media platforms are relatively unregulated. This is another novel challenge that digital liberties activists have to find unique solutions to,” he said.

Referring to another facet of social media that drowns facts with distortions, Justice Chandrachud said, “With the advent of troll armies and organised disinformation campaigns across different social media platforms, the fear is that there is an overwhelming barrage of speech that distorts the truth.” The CJI dealt with another argument that information technology had been of great assistance to the state machinery in reach-ing the welfare scheme benefits to disadvantaged sections of the society and said use of information technology has given rise to privacy breach concerns.
He said, “I would like to dispel the claim that economic status and access to welfare entitlements are more important than civil and political rights for socio-economically disadvantaged communities. All individuals, regardless of their socio-economic status are deeply impacted by violations of the right to privacy, autonomy, and intimacy….. In the realm of Artificial Intelligence, we find that the unchecked algorithms used by tech giants compound privacy concerns.”
Searching for a protected space for privacy and civil liberties in the digital era, the CJI flagged two issues – “First, the unprecedented proliferation of disinformation and hate speech on the internet has offered a serious challenge to the traditional ways of understanding free speech in a democracy.”