Supreme Court Hold Facebook Responsible For Instigating Public Outrage

The Supreme Court in India has held social media giants like Facebook responsible for ‘polarising public view’ at crucial times of decision making. In question, this time is the Delhi riots.

The court has said that the social media giant cannot shirk the responsibility of influencing people’s power to decide, by claiming itself to be merely a platform for the third parties.

In fact, the court holds it responsible in generating, controlling, and modulating any such matters that can influence government power or public opinion in politically sensitive matters.

In Myanmar for example, the human rights organizations and Western countries have held Facebook responsible for siding with the military posts and creating feeds that kept showing them as trending news creating and influencing the minds of its users. The only window to the Internet world and information comes to the valley through Facebook.

Making it clear that the kind of riots that New Delhi has seen earlier, is not something we can afford again. Stressing majorly upon Unity in Diversity, the top court has said that, “This (unity in diversity) cannot be disrupted at any cost or under any professed freedom by a giant like Facebook claiming ignorance or lack of any pivotal role.”

A plea filed by Facebook India Vice President and MD Ajit Mohan was dismissed by the court. He and others involved were challenging the summons issued by the Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee for failing to appear before it as a witness in connection with last year’s northeast Delhi riots that left 53 people dead and 200 injured.

Upholding the Delhi Assembly’s right to summon them, the top court said while Facebook has played a crucial role in enabling free speech by providing a voice to the voiceless and a means to escape state censorship, it cannot lose sight of the fact that it has simultaneously become a ‘platform for disruptive messages, voices, and ideologies.’