In 2018, India suffered an epidemic of violence, aided and abetted by WhatsApp[1]. The situation has spiralled out of control – the government is now planning to monitor social media. It wants to pin the responsibility on WhatsApp. The challenges faced by WhatsApp are not limited to disinformation. Political parties in India are exploiting personal data for political ends due to India’s lax data protection law. Internet is shortening people’s attention spans to the point where little more than slogans and sound bites now serve as the basis of political decision-making.
The relationship between the state and religion in India has often been perplexing and unclear. I argue that at the heart of this problem is the ruling Hindu nationalist party, which is accused of using WhatsApp to stoke religious resentment and foster Islamophobia[2] based on a narrow and rigid interpretation of Hinduism, as well as the WhatsApp[3] platform itself, where the monitoring of ‘disinformation’ is rather ‘complex’ due to encryption.
The religious and cultural chauvinism of ‘Hindutva’[4] rejects the constitutional secularism of the Indian state.[5] Baksi and Nagarajan detailed more than a hundred cases of vigilante violence fomented by ‘disinformation’ against ‘Dalits’ and ‘Muslims’ since the current administration took power.[6] It is argued that this targeted ‘disinformation’ or strategic deceit—a tactic used by the Hindu fascists—is by no means a new phenomenon. Historically, individuals in India with the most media access dominated political discourse to the detriment of individuals and society. In her book, ‘I am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army,’[7] journalist Swati Chaturvedi elucidates how the party orchestrates online campaigns to intimidate perceived government critics through a network of trolls on Twitter and Facebook.[8] It led to a regime that controls and filters information and news based on absolute arbitrariness. In India, the relentless targeting of hyper-partisan views plays into the inherent fears and prejudices of people, influences their voting plans, and it has always been a threat to Indian democracy. The question is, will the public ever recognize the dangers that lie ahead and will they ever understand what is being lost in India? An election should never be seen as a war of faiths. An election in a democracy is the very different process of narrowness a theocracy brings. A BBC research found that a rising tide of nationalism in India is driving ordinary citizens to spread fake news. The research found that facts have become less important than the emotional desire to bolster national identity.
The Indian government is using WhatsApp[9] as a convenient scapegoat while failing to sufficiently address the underlying issues of intolerance and divisive nationalist rhetoric fueled by the ‘Hindutva.’[10] It is the responsibility of the Indian state to stop facilitating this environment of hate and impunity. It is the deteriorating nature of politics that is primarily responsible for the spread of ‘disinformation’ and vigilantism. What is happening through WhatsApp is a result of a tectonic shift in Indian social fabric. In my view are we not just dealing with a disruptive technology rather we are facing an intolerant society, hence, the role of political and private parties in spreading polarising views should be rigorously investigated.
The Indian government has discussed amending Section 79 of the IT Act,[11] which deals with liabilities of intermediaries so that it can force them to monitor ‘unlawful’ content.[12] In other words, the government is seeking a way to circumvent the end-to-end encryption used in WhatsApp. The existing laws in India fail to distinguish disinformation from freedom of expression. Also, the inability to differentiate between political opinion and deceit or political vindictiveness makes it challenging to regulate it.[13] So far, instead of genuinely trying to restrict the dissemination of ‘disinformation,’ the hegemonic government is focused on restricting freedom of expression and has proposed laws aimed at undermining privacy and stifling the voices of dissent.
The government already uses draconian laws such as the sedition provisions of the penal code, the criminal defamation law, and laws dealing with hate speech to silence dissent. These laws are vaguely worded, overly broad, and prone to misuse, and have been repeatedly used for political purposes against critics of the government. The problem in India is not that the constitution does not guarantee free speech, but that it is easy to silence free speech because of a combination of archaic colonial sedition laws, an inefficient criminal justice system, and a lack of jurisprudential consistency. Further, India’s legal system is infamous for being clogged and overwhelmed, leading to lengthy and expensive delays; it can discourage even the innocent from fighting for their right to free speech. India’s hate speech laws are so broad in scope that they infringe on peaceful speech and fail to meet international standards. These laws are often used at the behest of influential individuals or groups, who claim that they have been offended, to silence speech they do not like. The state too often pursues such complaints, thereby leaving members of minority groups, writers, artists, and scholars facing threats of violence and legal action.
Unquestionably, it gets worse; the Indian government has resorted to using the most extreme weapon possible, turning off mobile internet entirely. One thing is sure, the problem of ‘disinformation’ in India is a multifaceted problem which, having no single cause, has no single solution. I think historians may well point to India’s 2019 as the “WhatsApp elections”, it could very well become as a case study in how technology is shaking the foundations of democracy.
[1] How WhatsApp helped Turn an Indian Village into a Lynch Mob. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-44856910; When A Text can Trigger Lynching: WhatsApp Struggles with Fake Messages. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/when-a-text-can-trigger-lynching-whatsapp-struggles-with-fake-messages-1873050, see also Jha, Dhirendra K (2017) Shadow Armies: Fringe Organisations and Footsoldiers of Hindutva. New Delhi: Juggernaut books
[2] Right-wing Hindu groups used WhatsApp to spread a grisly video that was described as an attack on a Hindu woman by a Muslim mob but was in fact a lynching in Guatemala. One audio recording on the service from an unknown sender urged all Muslims in the state to vote for the Congress party ‘for the safety of our women and children.’ Another WhatsApp message exhorted Hindus to vote for the ruling party because ‘this is not just an election. This is a war of faiths.’
[3] WhatsApp is the most downloaded application in India. The app has more than 200 million active users in the country. More than 20 percent of the WhatsApp’s total users come from India.
[4]Hindutva is a brand of Hinduism propagated in the 1920s by the far right ideologue Savarkar. Savarkar in his book “Hindutva—Who is a Hindu?” published in 1923 argued that those who did not consider India as both fatherland and holy land were not true Indians—and that the love of Indian Christians and Muslims for India was “divided” because each group had its own holy land in the Middle East. Banaji, Shakuntala (2018) Vigilante Publics: Orientalism, Modernity and Hindutva Fascism in India, Javnost-The Public,25:4, 333-350, DOI: 10.1080/13183222.2018.1463349
[5] In recent times rationalists in India have been challenged, threatened or discredited and constitutional values like secularism has been ridiculed as “sickularism”. Human rights activists and organizations have been labelled ‘anti-nationals’, accused or charged with sedition. See Twitter search results at https://twitter.com/hashtag/sickularism
[6]Baksi, Sandipan, and Aravindhan Nagarajan ( 2017) Mob Lynchings in India: A Look at Data and the Story behind the Numbers.https://www.newslaundry.com/2017/07/04/mob-lynchings-in-india-a-look-at-data-and-the-story-behind-the-numbers
[7] Chaturvedi, S (2016) I am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army, Juggernaut Publication
[8] Right-wing publication Postcard News – dubbed ‘a mega factory of fake news’, https://www.altnews.in/postcard-news-a-mega-factory-of-fake-news-that-continues-to-spew-venom/
[9] WhatsApp and Google have appointed grievance redressal officers, but they are based outside India.
[10] India’s telecom regulator issued a long-awaited consultation paper titled ‘Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top Communications Services’.It is aimed at analyzing and discussing changes that may be required in the current regulatory framework to govern these entities; and the manner in which such changes should be affected.
[11] Section 79 of the IT Act, states that an intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information, data, or communication link if the intermediary complies with the provisions of the IT Act.
[12] The proposed rules are part of the draft of the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules) 2018, Rule 3(9)
[13] Section 208 of Information and Technology Act 2000 (amended in 2008) allows punishment for a person who sends offensive messages by means of a computer resource or a communication device, came under scanner after people were arrested for sharing their ideas on social media. However, the term ‘offensive’ in the law is broad, vague and manipulated by authorities to silence the dissent.
Risks And Opportunities In Deepfake And Other Related Technologies 