ROLE OF ETHICS IN POLITICAL GOVERNANCE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA IN INDIA

Mini Srivastava, Arvind P. Bhanu and Divita Khanna

Abstract

Social media has given unprecedented power to users in terms of connectedness, collaboration, and community building. Consequently, governments are engaging with citizens on social media on a regular and real-time basis for better connectedness. Notwithstanding the numerous benefits of social media platforms to users and governments, they have also become a hotbed of serious concerns like fake news, hate speech and privacy violation. In this hindsight, the paper highlights how each of these stakeholders contribute to these concerns along with some recent incidents happened in India. It also discusses the existing legal framework and underscores the state’s inefficiency in curbing them. The paper advocates instilling strong ethics-based-digital-literacy among users through a model code of conduct. Undoubtedly, this solution is idealistic, time-taking and highly ambitious, yet if it is implemented in letter and spirit, it can become a game changer in making social media safer and more accountable.