Creating a regime of fear

The government is criminalising dissent in the name of regulating social networks.

As the Upper House of Parliament prepares to deliberate on the Social Media Act (Bill), 2081 on Friday amid hue and cry about its problematic clauses, two news items from India caught my attention. The Supreme Court allowed podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia to continue producing content while also chastising him for using filthy language. We can’t have a regulatory regime that leads to censorship, the top court said, but moral standards of society must be maintained even as we enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech. In another case, the apex court chided the Gujarat Police for its lack of sensitivity in booking Rajya Sabha member and poet Imran Pratapgarhi for posting a poem on social media. “Seventy-five years after the existence of the Constitution, freedom of speech and expression has to be at least now understood by the police,” the court said .