SC Cautions Netizens: Restrain From Posting Abusive Content On Social Media Or Face Music

The Supreme Court of India on Friday (August 18) cautioned social media users to be prepared for action against them if they post abusive or vulgar content on social media.

The country’s apex court added that an apology would not be enough to waive the criminal proceedings that would be initiated against the perpetrators.

The Supreme Court made the comments during proceedings against former Tamil Nadu MLA and actor S Ve Shekher, who is facing cases for sharing a Facebook post, which allegedly contained derogatory remarks against women journalists, in 2018.

According to media reports, multiple cases were lodged against Shekhar in Tamil Nadu after he shared the post on the social networking platform.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and PK Mishra was hearing a plea filed by Shekher against the July 14 order of the Madras High Court, which dismissed his petition seeking quashing of criminal proceedings relating to the post shared by him.

“A careful reading of the contents of the message that was forwarded from the Facebook account of the petitioner on April 19, 2018, showcases women journalists in a poor light. This court is very hesitant to even translate the message that was forwarded by the petitioner since, to say the least, it is despicable. The contents are highly derogatory against the press as a whole in Tamil Nadu,” the HC said in its ruling last month.

The actor’s attorney argued in the apex court that he has issued an unconditional apology for the post and deleted it after having realised his mistake. The attorney also argued that the former MLA shared the post without reading it, an argument dismissed by the Supreme Court while also quashing the appeal to stay legal proceedings against him.

The apex court said that one has to be very careful and diligent while using social media. “If one uses social media, then he should be more careful about its impact and reach,” the bench told the advocate representing the petitioner.

According to a Meta report, the social media giant took action against 448.6K pieces of content related to bullying and harassment on Facebook in June 2023, under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. At the same time, the platform acted against 147.1K pieces of content related to hate speech and 295.3K pieces of content related to violence and incitement.

The statistics for Instagram were worse, as Meta reported taking down 675.8K pieces of content related to bullying and harassment in June 2023. Further, as many as 303.4K pieces of hate speech content and 261.2K cases of violence and incitement were taken down by the social networking giant.