‘No need to regulate’

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As we are weeks away from entering the 12th year of the millennium, one thing stands out. Social media— the two words that have made a deep impact on people across the world. From being a networking portal to serving as a real time news dispenser, social media now stands at the brink of possible regulation

and control. Even as the Russian government is trying to reduce the impact of tweets on the current political situation, the Indian HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has requested social media giants like Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft to screen ‘offensive’ material.
The protests in Egypt recently showed up some amazing statistics. Out of 52 million tweeters, less than 1 per cent were from Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen. The remaining 99% tweeters were from other countries, who kept giving updates. Recently, newest Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien tweeted: Wow you can tweet from your seat! The Rajya Sabha is wi-fi enabled. So at a time when there is real time access to social media, is it possible to regulate content? What can be termed as ‘offensive’ material? Blogger Manu Prasad strongly feels regulating virtual content is a bad idea, “Any kind of censorship is warped! What you read on social media today is probably the most unbiased opinion you can come across. Even a Chetan Bhagat has ten voices to counter him, and everyone has a say. That’s how a democracy should be.”
The media fraternity feels while print and electronic media underwent regulation, it is not so easy to enforce the same on the Internet. Law student Akram Azad says, “We have seen over the years how media has been controlled on the outset of the slightest controversy. Screening Internet content should not be encouraged since it will give rise to vested interests. The cause of the common man will be lost.”
While the consensus is similar from most social media enthusiasts, the larger opinion is Internet content should not be regulated. Naresh Rao, HOD of Journalism, Christ University says, “Personally, any kind of censorship is not favourable, even though there is a lot of questionable content online. Whatever is happening in Russia, Egypt and India seem like knee jerk reactions because the Government cannot possibly control the virtual domain.”