“Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun.”
The quote referred to above are the words of Pete Cashmore, the CEO of the famous digital website Mashable, who appropriately mentions the relation of privacy and social media in today’s world.
The Information and communication technology sectors have been remodeled and are modernizing rapidly. The emergence of social media has reformed the world at an implausible speed. As there are two sides of a coin, there are pitfalls of Social Media as well. Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India, 1950 guarantees “Right to freedom of speech and expression”. However, it is to be understood that this Fundamental Right doesn’t give any person the ‘absolute’ freedom to express themselves and no person is allowed to write, speak or express in any form anything that they wish to. People seem to have been taking the Fundamental Rights for granted and have been violating the rules and regulations, which has resulted in copious civil and criminal cases, comprising of repeated cases of fake news, trolling, defamation etc.
There is an acute need to regulate and evaluate on a regular basis the context, content and intent behind any news or information being circulated through social media or networking channels. The legitimacy of these articles or pieces of information must be verified as it can have a vast impact on the population which receives such information.
Advocate Sumit K. Batra suitably states, “Though no law can ever completely insulate the users of social media and networking from the issues or problems cropping out of technological advances, some basic guiding principles can take care of a lot many issues. While it is permissible to create, transmit and circulate news or information in social media, the big question that often arises has to do with a personal sense of discretion — something might be offensive for me but not offensive for others.”
Social media in India is regulated by the Information Technology Act, enacted in 2000. This was put in place in order to regulate the problems that sprang out of usage of Information Technology.
Enhelion Knowledge Ventures Pvt. Ltd. renders a wide-ranging certificate course explicitly covering Social Media and its reference to the Information Technology Act, 2000. The course ‘Certificate in Social Media and Information Technology Act, 2000’ has been sketched in association with Scriboard Advocates and Legal Consultants. The course covers in its ambit the essential concepts of Data Protection, Privacy, and Intermediary Liability. It also covers the compliances to be adhered to by Corporates, the jurisdiction and laws governing Cyber Space and the module which makes it unique is the Comparative analysis of different international legislation’s. It is India’s first certificate programme and is mentored by the experiences of India’s well-known corporate commercial lawyers.
Each one of us are puppets in the hands of technology and its various forms. The need to understand the legal framework governing privacy and social media and its pitfalls is grave. The Information Technology sector is a part and parcel of almost all the other industries existing and as a budding legal professional, the knowledge of these laws is just like adding a feather to the cap.
For more details on our Certification course on Social Media and The Information Technology act Contact Us or write to us on info@enhelion.com