Hate Speeches in Social Media Platform: A Challenge to National Integration in India

Abstract

In the era of cyber penetration, most of the irresponsible activities against national integration are taking place in social media platform. Section 66A of IT Act 2000 & 2008 tried its best to contain hate speeches in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, YouTube etc.   But when Supreme Court made the act unconstitutional on grounds of violating freedom of speech and expression, the number of hate speeches increased in India and it caused for many social unrests in India leading to brutal murder of common people in the recent past. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right at the same time the freedom of speech should not affect other’s freedom. The general perception is that, there should have reasonable restrictions in the form of laws to prevent hate speeches both in online and offline world.  As smart phones and the internet became a convenient tool to propagate hate speeches against a particular community / religion / vulnerable community through social media.   A small piece of hate speech against a group created massive unrest and protest among the affected people, for instance hate speeches circulated during the time of Pandemic Covid – 19 against a minority community and subsequent clashes between the groups has been evident in this regard.

Many governments, NGOs, political parties and other stakeholders of the society are using internet and other social media effectively for their propaganda, recruitment and political orientation. At the same time, some radical groups and anti-social elements are using social media to spread hatredness and sowed the seeds of communal disharmony in the minds of young and educated people in India, which leads to severe blow to national integration process in India. This article tries to analyse the effect of hate speeches in social media based on various issues happened in India in the recent past and it tries to evaluate the existing laws which aim to control the hate speeches in India. The article follows descriptive and analytical method and the major chunk of data was collected from the secondary sources such as newspaper reports, articles, and reports of various investigation agencies