A recent article in the Wall Street Journal quotes academics who question the value of free speech on the internet. The argument of these experts is that free speech helps promote critical thinking and criticism which may lead to change in a country’s social policy. The writer of the article, Mark Gonglle, an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco, states that the Twitter ban in India violates the rights of citizens to express themselves and engage in public debate. The user no longer has the right to be a citizen of a country and must immediately leave the country if found guilty of posting messages that are offensive to other citizens of that country.
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Twitter Ban In India
Twitter, an American microblogging site is under fire after the United States government issued a number of orders to its users. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the government agency that supervises trademarks and other laws that govern consumer protection has banned people from using several anti-spamming language on their accounts. This includes the use of the word “free”, which has caused several Indian companies to close down their Twitter accounts. This has come at a time when Indian internet users are heavily worried about the future of their country’s internet freedom.
There are lots of Indians have taken to twitter to express their rage over this latest development by the Indian government. Many tweets have been posted by users who have faced the ban but still remain free to post any message they want. The government has promised to do future moderation in its uses of the micro blogging site. If this statement is carried out then there is a chance that the user’s freedom of speech on Twitter might be restricted in the future.
Why Twitter is Getting Ban in India?
The Bharatiya Janata Party has banned Twitter in India. The reason given was that the Bharatiya Janata Party did not want to see corruption in their party and they thought that Twitter may just give a free pass to the Telecom Companies to do whatever they wanted. That is a very worrying statement and shows that this could be the beginning of a lot more government control over private communications. If this is true, then we may soon see all businesses closing down their Twitter accounts.
I cannot see how anyone can defend this. If you have heard about the new “Twitter Tax” then you have probably heard about the ability of a company to withhold payments from their account holders for incurring any of a number of different types of tax liability. So essentially, if you are not paying your taxes, you can get slapped with a Tweet tax which is essentially a special type of penalty. The government wants to help people by keeping them out of scams and illegal activity. Okay, so let us proceed with this thought shall we?
Before this new regulation there were actually many instances where people used their Twitter accounts to run scams on other people. For example, one gentleman who was running a small business was actually recruiting his employees under false pretences. All of the employees he was sending were not part of the business and he was racking up large medical bills by using his own health insurance scheme.
What are the guidelines that the Centre wants all social media platforms to accept?
This man used his Twitter account to promote another business that was only a scam. He was actually bragging about the fact that he was able to pay his employees using his personal scheme. In another case, a business woman set up a Twitter account and talked about her business without ever actually doing any work for the business. She just hosted the Twitter account and talked about the company twenty-four hours a day. When she got tired of it she closed the account. How is this fair for her?
What this means is that the government is trying to regulate business and limit private communication. Is this fair to the government? I am afraid it is not. The whole point of the Internet is to have open communication lines between individuals and businesses.
If the government can close down a legitimate and very useful social networking site such as Twitter then they can shut down a legitimate business as well. This is why I am against government regulations of business use of Twitter. I think the best thing is if a business owner gets in hot water for something totally unprofessional, if they put the blame on the government and say that they are being abused then let it go. Let’s look at the other problems in government when dealing with businesses.
What does Govermant think about the social rights of people?
I think that the government should never step into the personal lives of citizens. It is the people that run the businesses and they know their rights better than anyone. You can go to the government website and read all of the rules and regulations. You can also contact them through their toll free number and talk to a representative about any business issues you might have.
I’m not saying that the government is wrong in regulating business on the Internet, but I do feel that there should be some limitations. You should never take the word of the government officials. You should always have your own lawyer look things over before signing anything. Besides, if the government regulation is too strict then businesses will not spend money on advertising on the Internet because they will simply be unable to afford it. Consider this in 2021.
