According to official records, there have been seven incidents of communal violence in West Bengal over the last two months. And all these have been reportedly triggered by provocative posts and inflammatory propaganda on social media platforms. The latest among these incidents of communal violence took place in Baduria, about 60km from Kolkata, on July 2, when an offensive post by a 17-year-old boy brought two communities to drawn daggers – literally.
While the Bengal Government had resorted to somewhat draconian measures in dealing with such provocations in the past — as it had happened with the arrest of Jadavpur University academic Ambikesh Mohapatra, following his Facebook dig at chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a couple of years ago — there is no denying that what has happened in Baduria points to a damaging trend: Spread of communal discord through malicious posts over which the administration has little or no control.
Ankhi Das, Facebook’s director for public policy in South Asia and India, said last Sunday: “Keeping people safe is our concern and that is why we have very clear policy guidelines to expunge any post that aims to spread hatred or violence.”
The problem with propagation of hatred through social media is that it is only in hindsight that the administrative machinery can work on corrective measures.
The problem with propagation of hatred through social media is that it is only in hindsight that the administrative machinery can resort to corrective measures, with virtually no possibility of any effective pre-emptive action, given the free and unhindered nature of such platforms.
The onus is now on the administrators of these social media outlets to come up with more potent regulatory measures to stop vitriolic posts, before they go viral.
Along with law-enforcement agencies, taking on the merchants of hate ought to be a policy priority for moderators of social media channels as well.
