Facebook face-off sparks rebellion on social media

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Soon after the harrowing experience of two Mumbai girls who expressed their opinion on Mumbai bandh on Facebook came to light, young poet Meena Kandasamy wrote on Twitter: "Indian police can convert nation into an open prison bcoz lots of us hate a man who adored Hitler #Arrest Me." Following this tweet, Meena posted several thoughts, venting her anger on the system.The last in the series of tweets said she felt sorry for the Indian tricolour.
Meena was one among thousands of angry youngsters who were seen waging a war for freedom of speech on the internet on Tuesday. If Shaheen Dhada was arrested for criticizing the bandh observed in Mumbai following the death of Bal Thackeray, several active users of social networking sites in Kerala committed graver crimes by the scale of Mumbai police. Comments cheering the death of Thackeray and portraying him as a merchant of hatred are still being shared actively by Malayali youth.
Take for example, the post by K N Ashok on Facebook: "Certain deaths will bring hope to people; hope of a better world. Good bye Thackeray and Pondi Chadda. Never come back." Another one by Sebin Abraham on FB said: “Go prophet of hatred. Never come back. Go away from our damned memories.” A post by T C Rajesh was titled, ‘Hindu Terrorist attained samadhi’. While Ashok’s post got 26 likes and seven shares, Sebin’s post got 173 likes and 123 shares till Tuesday evening.
"If I can speak my opinion about someone beside a public road, I can do the same on Facebook too. If I abuse someone at a public place, the police can initiate action against me. I think it should be the same way to deal with FB posts too. Regarding my post, I don’t think I said anything abusive," said Sebin Jacob.
IT expert and columnist V K Adarsh supported Sebin’s opinion and added that there were indeed draconian clauses in the present IT act. "The controversial clause 66 (A) was added when the act was amended in 2008. The amendment was passed without any debate in the Parliament as the proceedings had been stalled then owing to some other issues. As a result, the new amendments were pro-government in nature," said Adarsh. He also said incidents like that in Mumbai would help the citizen’s media to mature. "It’s a medium that guarantees free speech for common man. The ultimate victory will be of social media as it represents people’s power," said Adarsh.
Cyber crime investigator Dhanya Menon said it was the duty of every user of social networking sites to abide by the law of the land. "The debate on whether the rule compromises one’s freedom of speech is different. The current rules demand great caution from users. There are still people who think that they can remain untraceable after posting something on FB," she said. According to Dhanya, the 66(a) clause had already been used by many aggrieved persons in Kerala. "Those complaints didn’t become news as the complainants are common people," she said.
There are experts who are of the view that such incidents will only help to refine the IT act and the social networking medium. "The print media has established its privilege to speak the truth through long and continuous fights. The girls in Mumbai didn’t do anything more than what justice Markanteya Katju did through his article on the same subject in a newspaper. But, nobody seems to question the newspaper article or the author," said Sebastian Paul, veteran journalist, lawyer and former press council member. "Any law in the country should be in sync with Article 19 (1) (a) which guarantees freedom of speech. I don’t think the controversial provision in the IT act correlates with Article 19 (1) (a)," he said.