Social media giants are violating Right to Free Speech: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar says that the algorithms used by social media platforms restrict the right to freedom of expression. He referred to US President Donald Trump's order to curb the protection enjoyed by social media giants, issued 2 days after micro-blogging site Twitter flagged two of his tweets related to use of mail-in ballots in the upcoming US elections for a fact check.

New Delhi:The US President Donald Trump’s decision to pass an executive order to curb the protection enjoyed by social media giants like Twitter, Facebook, and others has brought the spotlight back on the principles and rules used by these companies in filtering or promoting certain content on their platforms. These social media platforms have long avoided scrutiny in the name of using algorithms, and they must be brought under some kind of scrutiny as the algorithms used by them are restricting the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression, said Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

“There is a serious problem with the way we are regulating social media platforms, especially Twitter because while under our Indian Constitution we are guaranteed freedom of speech and that freedom of speech can only be restricted under Article 19 (2) under specific circumstances, these social media platforms have created algorithms which can either amplify a message or conversation, or they can suppress it,” said Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

“While that in itself is not a problem but what is the algorithm, who has designed the algorithm, there is a need for algorithmic accountability,” he told ETV Bharat.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who has in past raised the issue of lack of transparency in the principles used by these social media giants in filtering out content, rejects the argument that such decisions are governed by automated software programmes and social media companies have no role in it.

“It is not enough to say that ‘we are not doing it’, ‘there is an algorithm’ and an ‘algorithm is doing it’,” explained the Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka.

“It is also important to understand that the algorithm is designed by a human and if that person who designs the algorithm has biases then the algorithm will also have biases,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar noted.

The businessperson turned politician says an Indian regulator should be able to scrutinize these automated software programmes used by social media and internet giants such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others.

The alleged bias in the rules and programmes used by some social media giants has triggered an intense debate in the US as President Donald Trump has publicly sparred with some media organizations and social media giants over the issue, blaming them for peddling the fake news and stifling free speech.

“To what extent Mr Trump has done it in the US is the consequence of this growing perception that some social media platforms have some ideological bias based on their founder’s, their CEO’s outlook towards life,” noted the lawmaker.

The US President Donald Trump Thursday signed an executive order that is aimed at curbing the protection available to social media giants as a publisher for publishing third-party content on their platform.

Mr Trump issued the executive order two days after micro-blogging site Twitter flagged two of his tweets related to use of mail-in ballots in the upcoming US elections for a fact check, a sign which warns the users to check the credibility of the content or a claim by pointing to other sources of information.

“The freedom to express and debate ideas is the foundation for all of our rights as a free people,” said the executive order passed by the US President Donald Trump.

“We cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to handpick the speech that Americans may access and convey on the internet. This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic. When large, powerful social media companies censor opinions with which they disagree, they exercise a dangerous power,” stated the executive order.

However, it did not deter the micro-blogging site to flag some of Mr Trump's recent tweets related to the warning issued by him that he will use force to quell the riots that erupted in Minneapolis in the US following the death of an unarmed black man George Floyd on Monday. George Floyd was killed as a white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck in order to subdue him.

The threat of use of force by the US President to control the riots prompted Twitter to describe the wording and expression used by Mr Trump, particularly the use of a controversial phrase ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts’ a violation of its rules.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar says India already has reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech.

He says that freedom of speech in India can be restricted under Article 19 (2) of the Indian Constitution under specific circumstances and there should not be direct or indirect censorship of free speech in other cases as it is guaranteed under Article 19(1)(A).

“The Constitution is supreme and no algorithm can supersede the Constitution,” he told ETV Bharat.

He says these tech giants have largely remained free of scrutiny as people treated them as technology innovators despite some tech giants collaborating with authoritarian regimes.

The executive order passed by Mr Trump also refers to an American company’s attempt to filter search results shown to Chinese users to secure permission to operate in the country. An oblique reference to the US search giant Google which was reportedly trying to develop a China-specific search engine to filter out some keywords not considered appropriate by the Chinese authorities.

The order passed by Mr Trump also criticizes the global tech and social media giants for accepting and publishing propaganda advertisements issued by foreign governments.

“Other companies have accepted advertisements paid for by the Chinese government that spread false information about China’s mass imprisonment of religious minorities, thereby enabling these abuses of human rights,” said the executive order.

“These are companies that are not just able to affect the outcome of elections, they are also able to affect the outcome of the trade. They are very powerful companies,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar noted.

“They can do their business, but they cannot do anything else, for example, this alleged shaping of narrative on Twitter. Those are the areas where no platform should be allowed to go unchallenged or unquestioned by any sovereign democracy, including India,” said the Rajya Sabha member.

“We should have our own oversight of these platforms, whether these are Indian platforms, or they are foreign platforms, to ensure that they are not up to any mischief,” he added.

Inputs from a conversation with ETV Bharat's Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi