Laws Needed To Address Fake News & Hate Speech In Social Media : Supreme Court Judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat

Supreme Court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat has opined that laws are needed to tackle the proliferation of fake news and hate speech in the social media. There should be a legislation to address the issue and in its absence, there should be judicial intervention, said the judge while speaking at the Harvard India Conference last month.

He said that the rapid proliferation of media via the internet has been a "double-edged sword". While social media has led to an ease of information dissemination, the accompanying rise in misinformation and fake-news is an indirect challenge to freedom of speech and expression.

"In today's age and day, which is characterized by easy and rapid proliferation of media via the Internet, a retreating State and an overwhelming level of privatization, the freedom of speech and expression faces far more Insidious and indirect challenges. The absence of more stringent regulation or a framework of law that regulate control and ownership of media houses has unfortunately meant that private interests are having a chilling effect and beginning to dictate what is reported on in the news in a newsroom. The ease of disseminating information and media has been a double-edged sword. It has led to a democratization of voicing opinions by providing an accessible platform enabled cross-jurisdictional dissemination debate and protest and unprecedented access to knowledge. But it has also made the spread of fake news and false narratives and hate speech that much more easier. It is imperative for us to protect and promote the former and direct concerted of efforts in the form of legislation in its absence judicial intervention to tackle the latter", Justice Bhat said.

Justice Bhat said that the right of expression to discuss and dissent lies at the heart of democratic discourse. "The power of art, whether it is theater or films or songs or cartoons or even satire to disseminate ideas is compelling. If these ideas are not acceptable to the influential and the powerful, they attempt even in democracies to muffle them", the judge said while adding that the Courts have mostly acted to protect this cherished right from prohibitive State practices.

Recently, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also expressed concerns about the rise of fake news and intolerance in internet.

"We live in an age where people are short on their patience and short on their tolerance. Just as humanity has expanded with global advent of travel & technology, humanity has also retreated within by not willing to accept anything that we ourselves as individuals believe in. That's the challenge of our age. Some of this is perhaps the product of technology itself. Truth has become a victim in the age of false news", CJI Chandrachud had said at the American Bar Association conference last week.

Also Read - 'Fraternity Is Not Assimilation Of Minority Into Majority, Its Peaceful Co-existence Of Differences' : Justice S Ravindra Bhat