Aastha Thakur
Published on: 26 October 2022 at 19:44 IST
The High Court of Madras observed that through unsubstantiated and reckless social media posts, citizens cause havoc on the country and diminish “Mother India’s” respect and credibility in the view of other nations.
The court was considering a case in which it had earlier directed the quickest possible formation of special cells to take action against inflammatory social media posts. It had given the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu the responsibility of announcing the tender for the purchase of tools that would allow for the surveillance of social media platforms in order to take action against slurs directed at specific people, constitutional functionaries of the state, and the Centre.
The matter was heard by Justice M Dhandapani & according to him, 10 years back it was only the print media circulating the good and bad information to the public and the media actually were doing this work seriously resulting in the citizens being fed with good information, which enhanced the image of the country through the conduct of the citizens.
Justice M Dhandapani further added that, “But the emergence of the digital media, more especially the social media platforms, and coupled with the rights that have been vested on the citizens by the Constitution, not having been understood properly, the citizens, through the various social media platforms cause havoc to the nation and degrade the credibility and respect which the other countries around the globe have on Mother India.”
The High Court further stated that almost all digital media should be used for the general benefit of the public and that using it to express outrage against any individuals, constitutional functionaries, or high officials in the state and federal government would not only be a personal attack on their privacy and prestige, but would also be detrimental to the reputation of the said individuals and would have a knock-on effect on the work that they were carrying out. It stated that the public’s perception of the aforementioned officials would be harmed, which would not be in the interest of the country.
Justice M. Dhandapani ordered the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu to move quickly to obtain the necessary resources and set up the special cells in order to stop any slanderous assaults on specific people as well as on constitutional functionaries and senior State and Central Government officials.
The high court took the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu’s statement that the tenders for setting up of special cells have been received and will be opened within a week of observing that the constitution and functioning of the special cells, which were directed to be constituted, has been on board for more than a year and a half with very little progress.
The next hearing on this matter will be on November 2