New Delhi: Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi’s plan to tackle online harassment and trolling may run into unexpected trouble as a section of ruling BJP and its ideological mentor RSS have expressed their reservation against the move.
A section of BJP and RSS is uncomfortable with Gandhi’s move to check trolling as the decision was apparently taken without internal consultations. Many in the party fear that such move could be seen as government overreach, Hindustan Times quoted sources as saying.
A senior BJP functionary said that the move might clip the wings of party supporters, who put up a “spirited defence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government, and “they could face problems”, the newspaper reported.
In a tweet on July 6, Maneka Gandhi advised women and children to use the hashtag #IamtrolledHelp to seek help if they are "bullied, stalked or abused online”.
Two days later, she met a senior official from social networking site Twitter. In her meeting with Twitter India’s Head of Public Policy Mahima Kaul, it was decided that the social networking site will appoint "a dedicated contact person to whom the ministry can direct complaints of trolling on Twitter," PTI reported.
Her ministry has initiated the process of framing a mechanism to act against online bullying of women. A senior bureaucrat, Chetan Sanghi, will have charge of the new cyber cell.
"Women have been getting threats on social media, a girl has committed suicide because her picture was photo-shopped...say what you want on the Net but if there is a case of abusive crime, stalking, then my department will take cognizance," she said.
"Complaints received by the ministry, which are of a grave nature, will be reported to Twitter for action. The Ministry will also work with cyber-crime cell wherever required," said a press statement of the ministry.
A Twitter spokesperson in a statement said that "hateful conduct has no place on Twitter and we will continue to tackle this issue head on alongside our partners in industry and civil society."
The ministry has broadly defined three different categories of complaints on which it will take action and this will include abusive behaviour, harassment and hateful conduct
Maneka's initiative to safeguard women against online abuse met with criticism from when National Commission for Women Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam had raised strong objections when the panel was asked to monitor cases of online abuse
She had told PTI "You can’t police the net. It is an open space, it is like a galaxy almost. There are billions of twitter accounts and no organisation can keep an eye on twitter."
