Social media needs an independent oversight body (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Science and Tech
Prelims level: Independent oversight body
Mains level: Need of an independent oversight body to look into Social media related issues

Context:

• The public spat involving Twitter, Facebook, and President Donald Trump has once again exposed Facebook’s double standards when it comes to regulating content on its platform. 
• Twitter ‘fact-checked’ two of Trump’s tweets and labelled another on George Floyd as glorifying violence. 
• Twitter also disabled a video by the President’s campaign team citing copyright infringement. Facebook, on the other hand, refused to take down a controversial post by Trump despite protests from its own employees. 

Initiatives taken so far:

• Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, defended his decision by saying that though he did not agree with the President’s views, the social network’s free speech principles warranted that the post could not be taken down. 
• In sharp contrast, ahead of the general elections in India in 2019, Facebook took down 1,000 pages and accounts for allegedly engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour or spam. Of this, 687 were associated with entities close to the opposition Congress party. 
• Facebook based its action on user behaviour, without even going into the content they posted. There were no concerns about free speech expressed by the social media platform while taking down the pages then. 

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Challenges to the Facebook oversight board:

• Lack of consistency could set a dangerous precedent as pages related to political dissent or a social campaign could be taken down, or left untouched, depending on how Facebook perceives the situation or how vulnerable it is to pressure from governments. 
• The social media platform recently set up an oversight board in a bid to showcase that it can self-regulate. 
• However, a big drawback of this board is that, with up to 90 days allowed for a decision, it is simply not designed for an era of instantaneous transmission. 
• A platform which has been accused of not doing enough to prevent users’ data from being leaked to third party entities cannot be trusted to do its own policing. 
• Neither can it be left to governments to regulate as this could become a potent weapon to control public discourse. 
• Given the influence social media platforms wield on public opinion, electoral outcomes and consumer behaviour, it is time to set up an independent regulatory oversight mechanism.

Way ahead:

• In India, social media is both unregulated and vulnerable to government pressure. 
• While social media has enhanced the free flow of information and supported freedom of speech, it has also led to the rise of hate-mongering.
• India leads the world in the number of official “take down” orders issued to social media. 
• Policymakers must put in a framework that brings in transparency in terms of the responsibilities and rights of all stakeholders — users, intermediaries, and the government.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1)Consider the following statements:
1. Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) downgraded the Government of India’s foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings to “Baa3” from “Baa2”.
2. The latest downgrade reduces India to the lowest investment grade of ratings.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer.............

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Mains Questions:
Q.1)What are the reasons behind the self-regulation is unable to control the social media platforms? Do you think an independent oversight board is need to be formed to look after the issues relating to social media platforms? Comment