YES, NO, IT’S COMPLICATED |
Should WhatsApp be held accountable for lynchings?
Yes | Nikhil Pahwa
Misinformation and propaganda have flooded our messaging apps and little is being done by law enforcement agencies, the government, and WhatsApp to fix this.
Primary responsibility
The primary responsibility to fix this lies with law enforcement agencies. A mob takes the law into its hands if it believes that either law enforcement agencies are incapable/unwilling to help or that its crimes will go unpunished. A lynching is a lynching, whether or not it was precipitated by a WhatsApp forward. Mob violence is not an act of nature: someone leads the mob and there is often politics behind such acts, perhaps even protection.Law enforcement agencies shut down the Internet to prevent the forwarding of messages and possible riots. In 2017, according to data from the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), India had 70 Internet shutdowns. We’re halfway through 2018 and we have already reached that number. An Internet shutdown is a suspension of the constitutional right to free speech; a disproportionate act of censorship of all speech in response to the actions of a few. The data suggest that there are no shutdowns in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, while smaller towns bear the brunt of such actions. The lack of capacity of law enforcement agencies in smaller towns to deal with these situations is a worrying sign, especially in the run-up to elections. The data also indicate that the States with the maximum Internet shutdowns are where the BJP is in power or in a coalition: Jammu and Kashmir (before the government collapsed), and then Rajasthan, Haryana, U.P. and Gujarat.
State governments need to build law enforcement capacity and ensure prosecution in case of mob violence. A new law covering lynchings will be ineffective if our criminal justice system is incapable of enforcing the law. The Centre needs to do better while engaging with messaging and social media platforms: it took the Information Technology Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, till 2018 to ask WhatsApp about action being taken to address misinformation. This is despite the fact that three years ago, T.N. Seema, a Rajya Sabha MP, had asked the Home Ministry to clarify “the mechanism existing with government to deal with the danger of high-tech rumour-mongering kind of Internet-rumour-bombs which may lead to communal tension and fear among the common masses.”
It is important for platforms like WhatsApp to not be legally accountable for the messages being sent through them. That would amount to holding telecom operators accountable for the calls that you make. However, that doesn’t mean that WhatsApp isn’t responsible for helping ensure that users are held to account for their messages.
What WhatsApp should do
WhatsApp needs to change its platform to enable messages to be either public or private. Messages between individuals should remain private and not be those that can be forwarded. However, if a message creator wants to enable the forward ability of that message, the chat should be treated as public, and attributed with a unique ID linked to the original creator. This will allow WhatsApp to shut down such a message across its network once it is reported, and identify the creator when a court-directed request is made by law enforcement agencies. This will ensure accountability, allow the platform to remain neutral, and ensure that illegal speech is addressed. It’s important to remember that incorrect or false information is not illegal and people could be mistaken. It is messages with incitement of violence that need to be addressed. However, given the apathy from the government, law enforcement agencies, and WhatsApp, there is likely to be more mob violence and lynchings.Nikhil Pahwa is the founder of MediaNama.com
