Urban Mirror

Urban Mirror Correspondent

New Delhi, July 16: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today strongly opposed the move of the NDA government to control various social media platforms or snoop on them in the name of national interest. The LGP said blanket monitoring of activities of the people on social media would only lead to the country becoming surveillance state, which cannot be tolerated.

The spokesman of the party said here on Monday that the Supreme Court has also taken note of the development on a PIL and a notice has been issued to the central government. The spokesman said the NDA government decision to set up “social media communication hub” (SMCH) is largely aimed at sneaking into activities of people on social media- Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and other platforms, which is blatant violation of right to privacy. The spokesman said that already WhatsApp has rolled out a new “forwards label” to control dissemination of spam and fake news on the application after world-wide debate over tackling the spread of fake information. But the NDA government’s decision to policing the activities through SMCH is not at all justified. The spokesman said the circulation of fake news and other such information should be curbed, as it has already created law and order problem in several parts of the country, but empowering the police in its control mechanism is fraught with serious consequences. The spokesman said the NDA government’s claim that its plan is aimed at inculcating nationalist feelings among the people and counter campaigns intended to harm India’s image globally is in fact surreptitious move to turn social media platforms into the police-controlled tools in favour of the NDA. The spokesman said right to privacy is actually right to life guaranteed under the Constitution and no government can interfere in it.

The spokesman said with fringe groups active on social media spreading venom and communal canard, it is incumbent on users to have a healthy scepticism towards the content they share on social media. Already Twitter India has started blocking profiles that spread fake information and is in the process of building tools to identify bots that spread fake news. The spokesman said since it is a global problems these companies are seized of the matter. And the users should be more vigilant while sharing content online. But NDA government’s move in this connection is intended to create surveillance infrastructure in the country to suit its political interest with the help of government machinery, which cannot be allowed.