The forecast after a fake news campaign in Tamil Nadu 

Disinformation campaigns could be used to manipulate social and political outcomes, as a concocted narrative about the safety of migrant workers in the southern State shows

Last week, a malicious online disinformation campaign led to law-and-order issues and made media headlines across the country. Over a four-day period, a concocted narrative about migrant workers, hailing from Bihar, being subjected to violence in Tamil Nadu was being continuously shared. Though the Tamil Nadu police responded with alacrity and debunked these false claims with factual reports, on-the-spot investigations and personalised appeals, the spectre of disinformation should not be easily disregarded. The propagation of fake news will be one of the biggest threats to democracy in an election season when most information is likely to be consumed through social media sources. As such, this issue should rank highly as any other with the potential to destabilise democratic institutions.  

On the first day of March, a public meeting held in Chennai to mark the 70^th birthday of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin saw the attendance of various national leaders such as Indian National Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Leader Farooq Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav. It was a significant political event as it brought together a grouping of leaders belonging to parties opposed to the BJP. On the very next day, videos of migrant workers leaving Tamil Nadu for Holi holidays began to be shared as if there was an exodus from the state due to incidents of violence. 

To nurture the narrative, stray news stories about death of a migrant worker were seeded online to build a wider campaign that there was targeted violence perpetuate against North Indians. Social media handles belonging to BJP office bearers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh shared the misinformation in social media and some media outlets such as Dainik Bhasker project these stories as news, without carrying out any verification. It was left to fact checkers, such as Alt News, to ultimately break the cycle of disinformation on social media.  

In order to contain the spread of fake news, Government of Tamil Nadu plied into service various officials including Head of Police Force and Superintendents of Police. Tamil Nadu police, specifically, clarified that the videos which were being circulated were false and mischievous. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, also, assured the Chief Minister of Bihar that adequate protections are being provided for migrant workers. Helplines were set-up by the Government at the district-level, particularly in the areas containing a higher number of migrant workers. Chief Minister MK Stalin visited a surgical glove manufacturing unit premises near Tirunelveli and interacted with labourers hailing from Jharkhand to reassure them. A high-level government delegation from Bihar visited Tamil Nadu and confirmed that there was no truth to the rumours about migrant workers being targeted in Tamil Nadu. In this particular instance, the response of Tamil Nadu was a text book rebuttal to curtail the spread of disinformation. However, the problem runs much deeper. When one looks at what is happening in other parts of the world, it is apparent that disinformation campaigns have the potential to unfairly manipulate social and political outcomes.  

Keeping this in mind, several countries have already felt the need to effect robust responses to disinformation. The European Union has put out the 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation. Some of the strengthened initiatives of the EU Code include transparency in political advertising, empowerment of fact-checkers and researchers, tools to flag disinformation and measures to reduce manipulative behaviour. The United Kingdom has proposed to enact an Online Safety Bill which will expect social media platforms (intermediaries) to actively monitor problematic content. As the UK Bill is being currently reviewed by the Committee in the House of Lords, there are already calls from a number of companies including WhatsApp and Signal to scrap the legislation in the interest of privacy. During the progress of the UK Bill, the provisions to monitor “legal but harmful” content have already been replaced with greater onus on social media platforms in enforcing their terms and conditions in accordance with their policies.  

On the other hand, there has been little or no serious discussion on the menace and extent of misinformation in India. The Union of India has only employed knee-jerk measures such as internet shutdowns across jurisdictions without due regard to the doctrine of proportionality. This response, to put it mildly, is over-simplistic, non-transparent and autocratic. A more studied, comprehensive and calculated set of legislative actions is required if one has to strike a balance between allowing free speech under Article 19 of the Constitution of India and protecting citizens from falling prey to malicious disinformation.  

In the case of Tehseen Poonawala v Union of India 2016, the Supreme Court had held that it is the duty of the Union and State Government to take steps to curb dissemination of “irresponsible and explosive messages, videos and other material on various social media platforms which have a tendency to incite mob violence”. India witnessed the panic created out of fake news during the early months of the pandemic. The Supreme Court of India in Alakh Alok Srivastava Vs. Union of India 2020 dealt with Public Interest Litigation on the plight of migrant workers walking hundreds of kilometres when the country went into lockdown. Such instances illustrate the real dangers of dissemination of fake news to public order.

Rather than coming up with a robust framework to tackle the menace, the Union has granted itself greater powers to strike down any content which is found to be unpalatable. Using Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Union Government has blocked access to any information online that it considers necessary in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state or public order. More recently, the Union brought out the IT Rules, 2021 to regulate the content by online publishers of news and social media intermediaries. The recent draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021 empowering the Press Information Bureau, under the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to decide what amounts to disinformation. It is apparent that the focus is not so much on blocking fake news as much as it is on containing criticism against the Union Government and its leaders. 

The recent spate of disinformation projecting discord between Tamils and migrant workers residing in the state of Tamil Nadu is nothing but an attempt to incite communal disharmony between the two groups. It is unfortunate that several social media handles belonging to BJP office-bearers as well as media outlets had propagated these untruths without having regard for consequences. However, it is the timing of the campaign, coming on the heels of a public meeting attended by MK Stalin and Tejashwi Yadav which really points the needle of suspicion against the BJP and its affiliates. Though the overall damage of this disinformation campaign has been well contained on this occasion, it serves as an ominous indicator of what lies ahead in the lead up the next general elections where voters will rely on information through social media more than any other source.

Manuraj Shunmugasundaram

Advocate practising at the Madras High Court and DMK Spokesperson 

(Inputs for this article were given by Arun PS)

Link to the Article: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-forecast-after-a-fake-news-campaign-in-tamil-nadu/article66632571.ece