This research paper unfolds the intricate dynamics of media, especially social media influence, and its ethical and legal boundaries in today’s world through the prism of law and ethics shedding light on the profound impact of technology. This paper endeavors to elucidate the nuanced interplay of law and ethics with the ongoing digital media.
The age of the modern media landscape often bestows ethical as well as legal concerns. Media over the past few decades has growingly shown interest in judicial proceedings thus hampering efficacious practice of law and proper administration of justice. Therefore, the law must reform to ensure that as we move forward, we do so with a compass of ethical and legal principles leading modern media towards efficiency and fairness, transparency, and human rights protection.
Keywords
Media, Social Media, Ethics and law, technology, online interaction, and influence.
Introduction
The profound progress in media, especially digital media technology necessitates a parallel evolution in our legal regime. Social media, specifically has the potential to transform every aspect of our society be it in healthcare to education, or business to justice, it is dynamic and can affect every part of life. Without sufficient oversight, these technologies could perpetuate biases, violate privacy, and undermine accountability. The laws governing social media incorporate a variety of legal frameworks intended to regulate various facets of online interaction, user privacy, intellectual property, and ethical behavior. While technological advances in media provide efficiency and convenience, ethical concerns about data privacy, job displacement, and algorithmic bias have surfaced as major obstacles. The law must shift to ensure that as we move into the future, we respect and abide by the ethical and legal principles forwarding modern media not just toward efficiency, but also toward fairness, transparency, and protection of human rights.
Social media, a hallmark of the twenty-first century, has had an immense effect on society, changing communication, information transmission, and interpersonal interactions. In a democratic society, the media functions as the fourth pillar, working as a watchdog that keeps the powers that be in check.
Research Methodology
This paper is descriptive and informative. The research is based on secondary sources of information like newspapers, journals, and websites. This source is used for the deep analysis of the role of media law and social media influence and its legal and ethical implications in today’s world. The research has been completed with the help of various documents and records.
Review of Literature
“Necessity is the mother of invention”, an extensively used English proverb is a modern-day attunement to technological advancement. The legal obstructions involve social media user rights, whereas the ethical challenges richens on a larger problem: “Just because we can archive social media, does that mean we should?”
Copyright and privacy issues have been cited as legal concerns. Current law falls short of directly addressing social media, as well as conversations and disagreements over their legal position. Digital platforms have become more complicated, and social media use has increased, opening up new opportunities. The complex ethical problems raised by social media collection frequently lack clear answers and sometimes merely raise new ones. Some appear to be transplants from traditional archiving and research. Such questions include: What social media content should be preserved, what social media information should be extracted, and many others.
Interpretation of Media Law in India
In the time of the media explosion, mandating legal notions to regulate the proper dissemination of information and communication became imperative. The colonial era had a revelatory effect on Indian media rules. The first legal implication imposed was the “Press Regulation, 1799”. At the beginning of the 19th century came the “Press Act of 1835” which repealed many provisions of earlier laws. Other prevalent laws concerning the publishing of newspapers and the production and distribution of books, journals, and printed material were taken into account. A few would be the “Press and Registration of Books Act” of 1867 ( which is still effective), the “Vernacular Press Act” which prevents the publication of seditious materials, and the imposition of penal punishments to such publishers and printers. “Newspapers (Incitement of Offences) Act, 1908” prevents newspapers from publishing revolting articles and the right to sue such newspaper editors. “Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act, 1956” for proper censoring of contents, another major legal boom was the “Press Council of India Act, 1965” which was reinstituted under the Press Council Act of 1978 to improve the standard of newspaper and news companies.
But the most crucial of all laws passed, was the day of 26th January, 1950 the day when the Constitution came into effect. When in the age of media restrictions during colonial rule saw a significant enshrine of “Freedom of the Press” as a fundamental right. The Constituent Assembly preserved the right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) in the Constitution. As a consequence, the right to freedom of the press is protected by law, comprehending the enormous diversity of media rules demands dealing with the several laws controlling the various media. Though the Right to freedom of the press is granted to citizens by the law of the land, it is subject to some reasonable restrictions. The print media has certain laws governing it, The Press and Registration of Books Act, of 1867.
Social Media Influence
Over the last decade, social media has peaked its existence and usage. The media has a strong influence on society and plays a significant role in keeping everyone updated about the happenings around the globe. The supremacy of media transforms society’s perspective. Social media’s dominance expands to shaping public discourse, influencing elections, impacting mental health through comparison and cyberbullying culture, planning particular events, and so much more. Its role in amplifying social movements, and supporting and protesting various issues remains a major part of today’s revolution. Social media has some reverse effect, extra dependency on these detaches a person from their loved ones. The youth generation is one of the dominant user of social media. A pernicious concern of social media is the time. Whether the time spent on these social media platforms are higher than face-to-face human interaction which is seemingly a reason for some mental health issues like loneliness, and depression. These have increased after the COVID-19 pandemic which restricted everyone from isolating themselves and stay at home thus creating a communication gap that was filled by digital media. Due to such constraints in a pandemic, social media arose at its peak during this time creating lot of ethical and legal issues.
Media is the fourth limb of democracy. Being such sets a high responsibility on it for proper regulation of information. Media, both traditional and digital, has an enclasping role to act against injustice, oppression, misdeeds and prejudice of the society. Social Media has an impact on people from deep psychological well-being of the individual to their professional work-life. The news, happenings around us, other information, etc., are a part and parcel of people’s daily life hence constitute a significant objective. The constant media glare can have severe health implications as well. In present times, the occurrence of media trials has become a prominent feature of the Indian media landscape which raises concern on the performance of just and fair trial.
Notion of Media Law and Ethics
Media and Law
Some social media-related crimes are:
- Cyber-bullying
- Cyber Defamation
- Email Phishing
- Fake/Impersonating Profile
- Misinformation
- Scamming
- Burglary via Social Network
- Obscene Content
Laws relating to Social Media, which penalizes such immoral activity are:
- Information Technology Act, 2000, under which Right to Privacy was decreed by the Supreme court, the apex court of India, as a fundamental right in the landmark Puttuswami Case of 2017. Also, another landmark reform was the strike down of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act which put restrictions on online free speech. Section 79 was also modified to use content by social media intermediaries according to the Government/Court order. According to 70B the government must appoint an agency named Indian Computer Emergency Response Team to aid as the national agency for incident response, Identity Theft and Impersonation (Section 66C and 66D), Punishment for Sending Offensive Messages (Section 67), Punishment for Sending Offensive Messages (Section 67),
- Indian Penal Code, under section 124A which criminalize “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, which may be added, or with fine”, under section 153A for “Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing any acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony”, under section 295A for “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”, Obscenity (Section 292 and 293 IPC),under section 499 for Defamation which reads as follows, “Whoever, by words either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs or by visible representations, makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, except in the case mention in the section”, under section 505 which includes statements conducing to public mischief is a punishable offence, under section 509 which states the “words, gestures or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman”. With the coming of new provisions, judicial interpretations and precedents laws relating to such offence are evolving and are becoming more stringent.
- Copyright and Trademark Laws
- Other Related Provisions
Authorities regulating:
CIRP(Committee on Internet Related Policies) formed in 2011 to regulate internet related issues, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under Government of India, The Advertising Council of India, Registrar of Newspaper, Central Board of Film Certification, Telecom Regulatory Authourity of India, Copyright Board under the Copyright Act, etc are some of the authorities responsible for keeping a check and balance of media related concerns.
Media and Ethics
Techno-Ethics is a term which concentrates on the ethical use of technology, protection against the misuse of technology and understanding of elements of technological advancement. The ethical use of new technology is essential in today’s society, especially in areas where technological advances have a transforming effect on society, such as digital media and social media, which in today’s world have a significant impact on society because technology affects the majority of people. The aim is to protect journalism, right and true content and not to protect the enterprise. So ethically all such activity that encourages falsehood of information, misinformation, online harassment, is in any way defamatory or derogatory is highly observed as malpractices. The digital realm presents us with an extensive amount of data and information in a domain that is easily accessible and thus as a result the ethical facets of data are endangered and sold. The fundamental aim of the media is to facilitate people with all the news and information, maintaining the authenticity of the news, using acceptable norms of the society. New York Times Ethical Handbook, highly regarded by media professionals, establishes guidelines for media staff’s mobility and workspace. Some ethical standards all media, be it traditional as well as digital media must follow:
- Transparency
- Fairness
- Just
- Honesty
- Authenticity
- Respect for user rights, among many more.
As society grapples with these difficulties, social media remains a dynamic force altering the fabric of contemporary life.
Suggestions and Conclusion
According to the preceding discussion, various laws govern the regulation of media, which dates back to laws passed in British rule, and which have been amended on multiple occasions since then. These laws were enacted in order to guarantee the smooth functioning of media, which includes digital media. Radio, television, and the Internet have all had significant political impacts throughout their histories. With technological advancement, citizens began to demand greater amounts of information and analysis from media sources. The rise of digital media platforms has considerably provided people with more information in all spheres of life. It promotes community-building, facilitates communication and sharing of diverse information across the globe. We look at how the evolution of media has transformed politics. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide global connectivity by promoting quick communication and the sharing of varied opinions. Media, both traditional and digital, is an impactful component to the public masses, so if not used in the correct manner can have a negative consequence and hence it is of prime significance that there should be legally guided regulations of media to prohibit any such negative outturn which might disturb the harmony and balance of the society. The government must mold suitable legislation to oversight such dissemination of information. Social media can increase public pressure on the judiciary. Online monitoring and criticism can pose issues for judges in maintaining impartiality and independence. Social media often sensationalize a topic due to its online rage. Social media can lead to biases and prejudices leading to online vigilantism. The research paper can examine the impact of this pressure on judicial decision-making and how the judiciary maintains its independence. To circumvent any aforementioned legal challenges such as misleading and deceptive information, defamation, disclosure of confidential information, etc. one must maintain the code of law and ethics while handling media content. A good social media policy is of dire need in today’s emerging technological world. Also in these growing days of social media one curate and create another’s identity hence correct measures to preserve their rights and protect the authenticity of identity becomes another important issue to be addressed. Some more suggestions:
- Creating stability between Freedom of Expression and the Right to Privacy
- Proper working of all pillars of democracy and not intercepting into each other
- Creating a good social media policy which covers ethical and legal challenges
- The importance of “Consent” while handling social media
- Ensuring proper implementation methods for implementing existing provisions
- Training and Guiding the Judiciary and Legislature with the advanced digital media and make everyone aware of the repercussions of the same
- The principle of Accountability and Transparency must be followed
Improving the legislations and ethical conduct around media, both traditional and digital, requires a holistic approach by both the Government and by people.
[1] Ward SJA, Approaches to media ethics. In: Ethics and Media: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press; 2011
[2] Volume I, Sohini Mahapatra, Media Law in India,2023
[3] Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors. (2017)
[4] Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, 2015
[5] Indian Penal Code, Sec 124A,153A,295A,499,505,509, Acts of Parliament, 1860
[6] Information Technology, Sec 66A(REPEALED),70B,79, India Enactment Date, 2000
[7] https://prsindia.org/articles-by-prs-team/
[8] Suneeta Hegde, Information technology Act implications on social media and cybercrime
Swastika Rana
Amity Law School, Kolkata.