Facebook, Whatsapp, TikTok Can Be Forced To Verify Every Indian On Their Platform; Will This Stop Fake News?
Fake news, provocative news, unconfirmed news, hate-fuelled posts have taken more than 30 lives in India, since 2017.
Govt. is determined to stop this menace, and a major decision can be taken regarding this. As per reports coming in, Govt is all set to pass a law, which will make all social media portals operating in India to verify the users.
If this happens, then every user on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, TikTok and other social media portals will have to be verified, and this can be one of the biggest such operations in India.
Will these social media portals agree?
Govt Will Force To Verify Users
Reuters have reported that Indian Govt. will bring a law, which will make user verification of millions of social media users, compulsory.
This news is based on inputs from unnamed sources, in the Govt. machinery.
These proposals are part of The Personal Data Protection bill, which also makes it mandatory for all social media portals to store the data locally.
The very basis of this bill is to stop the spread of fake news in India, and to keep data of Indians safe, and private.
An unnamed source said about the proposal: “The idea was to reduce the spread of fake news and online trolling,”
Will Social Media Portals Agree?
The Personal Data Protection bill has been cleared by the Cabinet and will be presented in the Parliament for debate, and approval.
Its passing will be based on the votes from the elected representatives in the Parliament.
Besides, a parliamentary expert committee or a panel can be formed, to study the implications of this new law.
Now, in case this law passes, then the social media portals will be enforced to implement this, and this can be a monumental task.
There are millions of users on these platforms, and verifying each and every user by these portals can incur lots of expenditure.
Facebook, which also owns Whatsapp and Instagram, has opposed this move earlier, since not every user on their platform can be expected to have some sort of identity card to verify themselves.
However, there is another angle: The verification from the users’ end would be optional.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
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