Facebook discontinued fact-checking program
In today’s era, when the facts are also disputed, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has closed his/her third-party fact-checking program. he/she plans to crowd the disputed facts. It will start in America, but soon it will become a global practice. Instead of playing the role of a mediator in disputed facts, Facebook can now claim that the facts are being determined in a ‘democratic’ manner.
But crowdsourcing is unfortunately a form of majority. In true democracy, equality is guaranteed for minorities. No guarantee applies to crowdsourcing. Instead of having an accurate way of checking the facts, it would be a way for the majority to spread lies about minorities. If it comes to India, it is likely to accelerate hatred about minorities and lies. Every lie will be increased extensively by social media.
Trump supporters kept opposing online censorship
Trump’s supporters have been opposing ‘censorship’ for a long time. However, when Zuckerberg abolished the fact-check, citing censorship concerns, the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Volcar Turk clearly announced that online hated speeches and allowing harmful materials result in the real world. Regulating such material is not censorship.
Increased hatred speeches against minorities in India
A recent 2024 report of the Research Group India Hate Lab, Washington -in Washington, has revealed that hatred speeches against minorities in India in 2024 have increased by 74%, which has increased to 1,165 (more than three days) from 668 incidents. Uttar Pradesh (242), Maharashtra (210) and Madhya Pradesh (98) topped the states with hate speeches. These three states, where the BJP and its allies have a government, are responsible for 47% of the total hatred speeches recorded in 2024.
BJP national spokesperson Jayveer Shergill told CNN that the report was published to tarnish India’s image. Shergill said, “Today’s India does not require any certificate from any ‘anti -India report industry’, which is run by vested interests to damage and tarnish India’s image.”
What kind of speeches increased?
According to this report, there was a call for seizing, removing or destroying the places of worship owned by minorities in about a quarter of haft speeches (23.5%). More than tenth were clear calls to buy and distribute weapons for use against him/her. Nearly the same number of people called for social or economic boycott of minorities. Out of 1,165 haaftee speeches, 995 were shared or lived on the first social media platforms, which increased the hatred greatly.
Muslims are accused of teasing jihad. Love Jihad and Corona Jihad are old jumlas. Other land jihad (Muslims encroach to offer namaz on public land and then build mosques), vote jihad (Muslim Hindu vote as a block to weaken the solidarity), population jihad (Muslims produce more children to increase their population stake), Thuk Jihad (Muslims spit in food to pollute Hindu business and Indians to pollute the Indian Damage the economy).
Cases increased further in the year of elections
Since 2024 was the year of the general election, naturally hate speech increased. This became an opportunity to play the bugle of electoral campaigning that Muslims and Christians are outsiders and should be placed in their place. his/her loyalty was constantly being questioned. Muslims were often called ‘intruders’, meaning that they were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Due to BJP’s defeat in the general election, some optimists claimed that communal passion provoking had failed as a strategy. But then the BJP and its allies won the elections in many states – Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi. In its last two term, the party always performed poorly compared to general elections in the state elections. But in 2024 it was reverse. In these elections, hatred speeches were seen to be successful. This is a matter of regret and encourages abuses in future.
Facebook’s leaked documents were revealed
In 2021, the documents leaked by the Facebook whistle frances Haugen revealed how her Indian branch was not removing the speeches hatred by some politicians as she wanted to maintain good relations with the Center’s party. The India policy head of Facebook allegedly resigned due to these problems.
In 2024, Facebook took responsibility for 164 of the 259 stream of speeches called for armed action against minorities. Until last month, only three were removed. With the end of new mood and alleged censorship by social media in the US, hate speech in India seems to be getting worse.
