WHATSAPP: The US based chat messenger which claims to be encrypted to protect the privacy of the individual posting any content, has challenged the new information technology rules before the Delhi High Court, calling them unconstitutional.

BY RAJAN NARAYAN

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Union Ministry of Telecommunication decided to make the social media accountable to the government for content posted by its users. For a Saturday following the week when several State government were not in favour of holding the 12th standard exam offline. For a Saturday following the week when while lockdowns are easy to impose, opening up the economy may be dangerous.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAGED

AND a few stray thoughts on WhatsApp challenging the new information technology rules of the Indian government which stipulates that social media must reveal the name of the originators of messages posted on its app. WhatsApp has pointed out that to comply with the government order, it would have to breach the secrecy which is the unique feature of the app. To quote the petition filed by the WhatsApp, “We have consistently joined civil society and experts in opposing requirements that would violate the privacy of our users.” WhatsApp has always claimed that even those who own and manage WhatsApp do not have access to the contents. However, WhatsApp has stated that it would continue to have a dialogue with the government to find practical solutions to keeping people safe and would respond to valid legal requests.
Union Minister for Telecommunications Ravi Shankar Prasad has called the petition filed by WhatsApp an act of defiance and accused it of preventing the implementation of new laws governing social media companies. The other social media platforms such as Google and Facebook have indicated that they would obey the new directions but Twitter has not yet made its stand clear. The IT minister has sought the details of messages considered provocative and demanded the appointment of a chief compliance officer, a residential grievance officer and a nodal contact person, who are all expected to be Indian citizens.
The controversy over postings on social media which includes Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Whatsapp first arose when the 17-year-old Nobel-prize winner Greta Thunberg, allegedly posted a toolkit for the benefit of the agitating farmers in India. Those who shared the so called toolkit within India were arrested for criticising the Modi government under the by now very notorious Sedition Act. The Sedition Act is normally applied only to criminals who seek to overthrow the government through violent means. The Indian government served notice to all the social media platforms to take down any illegal content that they noticed on their own or when it was highlighted to them by the government or the courts or the aggrieved person.
From May 26, 2021 it has become a civil and criminal offense to post anything considered illegal on the social media, whether it is a text or a picture or a video. The latest provocation for the crackdown on social media is a toolkit that was attributed to senior Congress leaders. The toolkit allegedly was aimed at bringing down the Modi government. Twitter, on which the toolkit was posted, insisted that the tweet attributed to Congress leaders was actually manipulated by senior BJP leader Sambit Patra.
Several other BJP leaders have also been accused of manipulating the tweet to give the impression that it was posted by Congress leaders. The Delhi police, which is under the control of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, raided the office of Twitter in New Delhi.
Social media has played a major role in promoting freedom of expression. It may be recalled that it was the social media which was primarily responsible for what came to be known as the Arab spring. When several dictatorial regimes were toppled by mass student-led movements. While privately owned media, whether print or electronic, have been accused of favouring one party or the other, till now there havbe been no curbs on social media.
For instance in the case of the United States, the media was reported to have been against the re-election of Donald Trump as president for the second time running. In India most of the print media and the television channels have been forced to support the BJP. Many of them have been taken over by BJP supporters, or critical media is denied government advertising. Many senior journalists like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shekar Gupta, Ravish Kumar and others just to mention a few names were sacked at the instance of the Modi government.
Owners of print and television groups who opposed the Modi government were victims of raids by the Income-Tax Department and the Enforcements Directorate. In sharp contrast till May 26 social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube enjoyed immunity from legal action. This was, however, very often abused both by political parties and by individuals to settle personal scores. There have been several cases of manipulation of Facebook and particularly YouTube where faces have been juxtaposed to mislead viewers.
Unfortunately, for the Modi government and other state governments, the Supreme Court and high courts have dismissed charges of sedition filed by political leaders. Social media itself claimed to have a mechanism for people to complain against fake posts and withdraw them if there was proof that they were manipulated. The objection is not to the exercise of some control on social media. But social media organisation are themselves being accused of being biased.
For instance, the Head of Facebook in India, Kirthiga Reddy, is supposed to be very close to Narendra Modi and has been supporting the BJP. The social media has started playing an increasingly important role in elections both at the national and state levels.

BJP TRINAMOL WAR

FOR instance, particularly in the case of the recent elections in West Bengal, both the BJP and the Trinamol Congress, allegedly posted fake posts against each other. There is general consensus that social media should also be accountable to a third party. Facebook and Twitter cannot be allowed to decide what can be posted and what should be deleted.
For instance a direction has been issued to social media not to entertain any fake posts of miracle cures for covid-19. Such posts by both individuals and religious groups claim that vaccinations can kill or have very serious side-effects. While vaccinations have had side-effects, the proportion of side-effects like blood clots in the case of Covishield vaccine has been a negligible proportion of the total vaccines given.
What the new law means is that the social media will also be accountable like all other media in the country. Registered newspapers for instance are liable to charges of defamation in courts of law or having their registration cancelled.

HIGHER EDUCATION

AND a few stray thoughts on the decision of Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyary, to go ahead with the higher secondary exam. The secondary exam or the 10th standard exam has been cancelled and promotion will be on the basis of internal assessment marks. In the case of the HSSC exam several states including the Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banarjee governments in Delhi and West Bengal, respectively, are against holding offline physical exams for the 12th standard.
The Central health minister who had a meeting with all State chief ministers and chairpersons of the Higher Secondary Boards have suggested holding physical exams end-July 2021. The logic is that by then, thanks to the lockdowns and curfews imposed by virtually all the states in the country, covid cases would be down sharply enough to make is safe for the students to do their exams.
The main objection to holding physical exams for HSSC is the fear that both teachers and students run the risk of catching covid infection. At the same time it is not feasible to promote all students at 12th standard or hold online exams because these exams are the basis for entry to professional courses like medicine and engineering, not to mention the IITs and the management institutes.
Manish Sisodia, deputy CM and education minister of the Delhi government, has demanded that all students and teachers conducting the exams should be vaccinated before holding the HSSC exams. In Goa, parents, teachers and principals, are not in favour of holding the HSSC exam physically. President of the All Goa Secondary School Teachers Association (AGSSTA) Dattatrey Naik has declared that they should take a decision based on the covid positivity by end-May 2021.
Most parents and teachers believe that the cancellation of the secondary exam is not only the best option but the only option. Parents however, are not happy with the idea of the cancellation of the exams. Convenor of the Parents Association Savio Lopes, has commented that the top scoring students will be the worst affected. But even Lopes agrees that life takes priority over exams.
In Goa also there is a demand that priority should be given to higher secondary students for vaccination to reduce risk of infection. It has been suggested that as an alternative, a Goa common entrance test and test like NET for medical students and IITG for engineering students, could be held to decide on admission to professional colleges.
Unlike in the advanced countries like UK, USA and Europe, India does not have the infrastructure even for effective e-learning, let alone the inputs required for conducting online exams. A digital infrastructure does not exist, particularly in the rural areas where there is no network. Indeed, in the wake of the recent Tauktae cyclone a large part of Goa lost Internet connectivity.

LIFTING LOCKDOWNS RISKY

AND a few stray thoughts on the lifting of the lockdown imposed by many states in the country. The neighbouring states Maharashtra and our own state Goa have a complete lockdown and partial curfew respectively, till May 31, 2021. In Maharashtra where the lockdown is more strictly imposed, the positivity rate has come down to 10.6%. This is in sharp contrast to Goa where the positivity is still as high as 30%.
Goa is probably among the few states in the country which permit relatives to attend to covid-19 patients in the hospital covid wards as in the GMC. This despite the fact that covid-19 patients are supposed to be totally isolated for fear of spreading the infection to others in the near vicinity. There is also a common belief that the Goa government is not revealing correct covid-19 data on covid-19.
It was only recently disclosed that 16,246 children in the age group of zero to 17 years have been infected by covid-19 in the current second wave and seven deaths have already been declared. Instead of ensuring an early end to the second wave the State government is engaging in fear mongering by talking about a third wave which will primarily affect children.
The Goa Paediatrics Association has dismissed the claims of the third wave predicted by the Head of Department of Preventive Medicine Dr Jagdish Kakodkar. However, what is a matter of concern is that the majority of those who test positive opt for home isolation.
Unfortunately, there is no supervision of patients who opt for home isolation. Which is why even though the positivity rate is going down, the death rate continues to be around 40 on an average daily. Many who do not survive their home quarantine are rushed to hospital too late. Which is why in the Medical Bulletin released by the Directorate of Health Services everyday more than half the fatalities are of people admitted too late and even worse were brought dead to the hospitals.

VACCINATION BLUES

UNLIKE Maharashtra, Goa is also lagging behind in vaccination. While about four lakh senior citizens and those above the age of 45 have got their first dose most of them are waiting for their second dose. Though Covaxin which is yet to be recognised by the World Health Organisation, it is being made available to the 18-45 age group there is not much response. This is not because the young people do not want to be vaccinated but because the majority are not computer savvy to get themselves a slot for vaccination on the CoWin app.
It has been suggested that the 18-45 age group should be allowed to register on the basis of their Adhaar card. Locking down is relatively easy as it only requires an order from the government. But the consequence of a strict lockdown ensures that the economy will suffer be it at the high end or pitiful low end.
The worst affected are housewives whose budgeting goes haywire because of the prices of everything shooting up be it the fresh produce coming into Goa from Belgavi (Belgaum) and other neighbouring states being affected. For instance, Bisleri mineral water has become scarce as it comes in from Maharashtra. The strict lockdown enforced in Karnataka has affected supplies of vegetables and meat products from Belgavi.
The example of the Seychelles Island which is a tourism resort like Goa is an example of the difficulty of opening up after a lockdown. All the local residents of Seychelles were vaccinated. The island nation reopened to tourism. But even with conditions stipulating covid-19 negative certificates, the number of covid-19 cases has gone up steeply again. In the case of countries like Australia and Canada, which have lifted all curbs since the entire population was vaccinated, they have been forced to re-impose the curbs. The Goan residents of Melbourne just recently celebrated the May Queen day without maskignn up or maintaining physical distancing.
Following the discovery that five Indians who were citizens of Australia had returned and were found positive for the deadly mutant virus, which is part of the second wave in India, the Melbourne authorities have re-imposed covid-19 curbs and banned partying after 6 pm. Social gatherings are limited to five people and wedding to 30 people.
It is therefore necessary not only to vaccinate the entire population of Goa, but to continue with the curbs on people entering Goa without covid-19 negative certificates. This may not be practicable because tourists wanting to come into Goa are many and it is not easy to check them and keep track of them, particularly with poor infrastructure for testing.