{"id":3855,"date":"2012-11-30T06:54:37","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T01:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=3855"},"modified":"2012-11-30T06:54:37","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T01:24:37","slug":"dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA Column – The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend"},"content":{"rendered":"

My column in today’s DNA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The UK is in the throes of a major scandal involving a child sex abuse ring and the attempts of the establishment to cover it up for over four decades. At the centre of the ring is the late James Savile, a BBC TV host, DJ and someone who had worked hard raising money for charities across Britain. After his death in 2011, stories began coming out of rape and molestation of children in orphanages, in hospitals that looked after children with physical and mental disabilities and children from other vulnerable backgrounds. But it was not just about one man. It was about a ring of powerful men whose perverted desires colluded to keep children abused; a system, run by these powerful men that conspired to keep these abuses silent and a code of silence that only got breached on the death of Savile. Naturally people were enraged. Broadcasters woke up from a 40-plus-year slumber to investigate the issue. Victims began coming forward, and outrage at such blatant abuse of power and cover up began growing. In all this outrage and collective guilt at covering up the crime, the media went the other way. The BBC named an innocent man \u2013Alastair McAlpine- of being part of the ring of paedophiles. The story got picked up by social media and went viral.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the BBC and people who tweeted links to the story this was not an ordinary citizen accused of a crime he did not commit \u2013 this was a rich business man with an army of lawyers. The BBC has publicly apologised has paid compensation. But, the story doesn\u2019t end there. Alastair MacAlpine is suing thousands of Twitter users who retweeted the story and made defamatory comments about him. Neither \u2018we didn\u2019t know it was not true\u2019 nor \u201cI have the right to free speech\u201d are adequate protection for those on social media who can be identified, and sent a legal notice by MacAlpine\u2019s lawyers. The compensation claims vary based on number of followers and are to be donated to a children\u2019s charity.<\/p>\n

The case has very interesting implications for all of us on social media as we are now seen as an individual publisher\/producer of content with the same legal\/ethical responsibilities faced by publishers in the main stream. And unfortunately, without any of the protection that journalists or publishers have under the law. We can\u2019t claim freedom of press, nor can we \u2018protect sources\u2019, or have the legal muscle to pull in lawyers to fight our case in case we run afoul of someone.<\/p>\n

In India, where we are slightly more lax about freedom of speech than in the west \u2013 the impact of international precedents like this are scary. Unlike the west where defamation is a civil suit between two parties \u2013 the defamer and the defamed \u2013 in India it is also a criminal offence (Section 499, IPC)<\/strong><\/a>. So if you write something about someone that they find defamatory, they can, theoretically, go down to the nearest police station and file a complaint. Following which the police will come to arrest you. But criminal defamation \u2013 which ought to be repealed- is not the only restriction to free speech in India. There is the first amendment to the Constitution that imposes reasonable restrictions on free speech and is the source of further laws that stymie our rights, the most recent of which is section 66(a) of the IT Act that deals with sending offensive and\/ or false messages. Under this Act, so far, a man has been arrested for making allegations on Karti Chidambaram; two girls were held \u2013 one for a Facebook status update questioning the closing of Mumbai on the day Balasaheb Thackeray died, and the other for liking that update; two others were arrested and jailed for 12 days for posting defamatory material against a number of \u2018holy cows\u2019 including the PMO, politicians and judges.<\/p>\n

The question here is simple \u2013 do people have the freedom to offend? If you don\u2019t have the right to offend then what is the purpose of freedom? For it is from questioning and the offense that comes out of questioning \u201choly cows\u201d that you have any sort of intellectual, societal or scientific progress. If people are touchy enough to take offence, it is really their problem. If they feel that they are defamed, then they can file for defamation in the civil courts. The State has no role to play in sorting out \u2018insulted and hurt\u2019 feelings. All that the State can do is ensure that law and order is maintained and the individual\u2019s fundamental rights are protected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My column in today’s DNA The UK is in the throes of a major scandal involving a child sex abuse ring and the attempts of the establishment to cover it up for over four decades. At the centre of the ring is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,54,23,27,42],"tags":[181,478,607],"class_list":["post-3855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-in-msm","category-digital-media","category-india","category-media","category-society","tag-article","tag-dna-column","tag-freespeech"],"yoast_head":"\nDNA Column - The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend - A PoV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA Column - The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend - A PoV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My column in today’s DNA The UK is in the throes of a major scandal involving a child sex abuse ring and the attempts of the establishment to cover it up for over four decades. At the centre of the ring is...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A PoV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-30T01:24:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@calamur\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@calamur\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"DNA Column – The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-30T01:24:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":789,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/60c3e7f79ef3b4745dac9f8dc29d3938\"},\"keywords\":[\"article\",\"DNA Column\",\"Freespeech\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\",\"Digital\",\"India\",\"Media\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/\",\"name\":\"DNA Column - The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend - A PoV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-30T01:24:37+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/30\\\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DNA Column – The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/\",\"name\":\"A PoV\",\"description\":\"Harini Calamur's Writings\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/60c3e7f79ef3b4745dac9f8dc29d3938\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/calamur.org\\\/gargi\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/60c3e7f79ef3b4745dac9f8dc29d3938\",\"name\":\"calamur\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"calamur\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DNA Column - The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend - A PoV","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DNA Column - The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend - A PoV","og_description":"My column in today’s DNA The UK is in the throes of a major scandal involving a child sex abuse ring and the attempts of the establishment to cover it up for over four decades. At the centre of the ring is...","og_url":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/","og_site_name":"A PoV","article_published_time":"2012-11-30T01:24:37+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@calamur","twitter_site":"@calamur","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"DNA Column – The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend","datePublished":"2012-11-30T01:24:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/"},"wordCount":789,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/#\/schema\/person\/60c3e7f79ef3b4745dac9f8dc29d3938"},"keywords":["article","DNA Column","Freespeech"],"articleSection":["Articles","Digital","India","Media","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/","url":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/","name":"DNA Column - The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend - A PoV","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-30T01:24:37+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2012\/11\/30\/dna-column-the-state-social-media-and-the-right-to-offend\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DNA Column – The State, Social Media and the Right to Offend"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/","name":"A PoV","description":"Harini Calamur's Writings","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/#\/schema\/person\/60c3e7f79ef3b4745dac9f8dc29d3938"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/#\/schema\/person\/60c3e7f79ef3b4745dac9f8dc29d3938","name":"calamur","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"calamur"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f8df2f7268afd0d54952b80930a504251ec3e1609cb7cd609351520060f6006e?s=96&d=mm&r=g"}}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p22F9v-10b","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}