The Wall Street Journal’s expose of Facebook India’s internal communications indicating its apparently special relationship with the ruling party should have resulted in a serious, bipartisan policy discussion in parliament on the need to find ways to regulate weaponised information and hate speech on social media. This discussion would have been particularly important, given technology’s power to… Continue reading Political Mudslinging Over Facebook Bias Will Only Let the Social Media Giant Off the Hook
Category: Politics
On Misinformation and Hate Speech (notes from a talk)
In August 2019, police in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh decided to open an investigation into a local journalist- Pawan Jaiswal all because he had exposed a government school for feeding its children salt and a chapati as a mid-day meal. This meal was well below the government’s minimum nutrition standards. But the state didn’t care about the… Continue reading On Misinformation and Hate Speech (notes from a talk)
Kashmir: Betrayal, Uncertainty and Fear make a Potent Brew
The drive from Srinagar to Shopian in South Kashmir on the sixth Friday since the nullification of Article 370 is eerily calm. On one stretch of the road near Kakpora, just before Pulwama, stones and the odd, felled tree trunk appear as makeshift roadblocks- laid by local youth to prevent any vehicular movement- military or… Continue reading Kashmir: Betrayal, Uncertainty and Fear make a Potent Brew
Scaling the Media Mountain- Modi 1.0 and the Indian Press
Days before the results of the 2019 general elections came in, and just 48 hours before his own constituency went to the polls, millions of Indians watched Prime Minister Narendra Modi, election campaign done, labour his way up the steep hills of Kedarnath, pray inside the temple’s sanctum sanctorum, meditate inside a cave. Television channels… Continue reading Scaling the Media Mountain- Modi 1.0 and the Indian Press
Elections 2019: Democracy in the face of majoritarianism
If the strength of a liberal democracy is judged by the space it offers for critique and dissent; or by the protection it offers to all its citizens, irrespective of caste, creed or gender, then Indian democracy is on a perilous path. Whether it was in the case of a young Kerala girl’s right to… Continue reading Elections 2019: Democracy in the face of majoritarianism
The Parliamentary Panel Will Reinforce Bias on Twitter, Not Fix It
Round one of the bout between the parliamentary panel on information technology, led by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, and representatives of Twitter ended as expected – with an extension. The committee asked Twitter’s global CEO, Jack Dorsey to appear before it on February 25 to answer to charges of a ‘liberal’ bias that drowns out… Continue reading The Parliamentary Panel Will Reinforce Bias on Twitter, Not Fix It
Digital Hatred, Real Violence
This paper was triggered by a study of social media commentary I had released earlier this year, that had shown a spike of 11 percent in religion based hate speech between 2016 and 2017. Here I try to delve into the causes and spread of such speech on social media and the intersections between free… Continue reading Digital Hatred, Real Violence
To Delete or Not to #DeleteFacebook, That is the Question
For the last few days, I’ve been grappling with an unexpected existential crisis over whether or not to delete my Facebook. While the harvesting of data of 50 million Facebook users in America for political gain, without consent, is unconscionable, the issues the Cambridge Analytica scandal has raised — of privacy, consent and data security… Continue reading To Delete or Not to #DeleteFacebook, That is the Question
Where have the Jobs Gone?
Job surveys indicate the ripple effect of demonetization and the Goods and Services Tax is disastrous. For a government that blazed its way to power on the promise of economic growth and opportunity, the ground tells a starkly different story. Here's the link to my latest episode of India Matters on NDTV 24x7 that aired… Continue reading Where have the Jobs Gone?
Triple Talaq and Marital Rape: Politics and Patriarchy Trump Gender Justice
A week is a long time in politics. If there were ever any doubt about this, the government’s contradictory positions on gender justice over the span of seven days between August 22 and August 29 have laid them to rest. On August 22, women all over India celebrated the Supreme Court’s verdict declaring triple talaq illegal… Continue reading Triple Talaq and Marital Rape: Politics and Patriarchy Trump Gender Justice
