India cannot become a surveillance State

The idea of a social media monitoring hub impinges on constitutional freedoms

It has made the apex court invoke Big Brother. The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the centre over its decision to establish a social media communication hub (SMCH) under the ministry of information and broadcasting for surveillance on social media. The SC has good reason to be concerned. In April, the ministry issued a tender for a social media communication hub. According to the Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation, the scope of work of the tender says it requires “a technology platform to collect digital chatter from all social media platforms as well as digital platforms”. In a portion of the tender titled “predictive analysis”, the purpose of such an exercise is stated as: “How could the public perception be moulded in positive manner for the country, how could nationalistic feelings be inculcated in the masses…”

Although the proposal is yet to be green-lighted, critics are questioning the need for the State to establish a command centre to monitor the social media activity of its citizens. It can work as a tool of blanket surveillance. The creation of such a hub goes against the spirit of the nine-judge verdict of the Supreme Court in 2017 restating the fundamental right to privacy. Surveillance can have a chilling effect on free speech, thereby hampering the freedom of expression as guaranteed in Article 19 (1) A. Also, the act of being constantly under watch by a Big Brother State can compel people to modulate their behaviour to conform to what the State expects of them.

If the SMCH collects personal data, it is likely to raise privacy questions. This has become contentious in the aftermath of a controversy about data privacy sparked by the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and the introduction of the European general data protection regulation. In the absence of a strong data privacy regime in India, the chances of its misuse remain high.