Understanding Digital Media Surveillance in context of Privacy and Freedom of Speech and Expression : Analysing the role of Facebook

Abstract

In 2017, the Supreme Court of India ruled in Puttaswamy v. Union1 of India that privacy is a basic right and is protected as an inherent feature of Article 21 under the Right to Life and Personal Liberty guaranteed by Article III of the Constitution. Importantly, monitoring of private information or data of any person is a violation of the right to privacy. With the advent of big data, technology has allowed large technology companies (Social media intermediaries such as WhatsApp, etc.) to monitor the lives of residents and users more efficiently and at a lower cost. Various methods, like as wiretapping, video graphing, geolocation, social media activity, etc., are used for the same purpose. The government has been using methods to monitor and censor potentially damaging information, such as anti-government websites, personal privacy, etc., in order to defend national security. Individuals' privacy and rights have been violated as a result of the expanded surveillance business model, which has commodified the manner in which people live by monitoring all the vital information about their lives.

The policing part of mass surveillance also pertains to the datafication of persons, which converts observed data into quantifiable data that can be utilized for governance and corporate objectives, therefore subjecting individuals to the ongoing scrutiny of the state and private corporations.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued the New Information Technology Rules 2021 in February 2021 in order to govern social media and defend the rights of people on social media. The Union Government enacted these provisions according to Section 87 (2) of the Information Technology Act of 2000, mandating that OTT platforms and digital portals in India have a grievance resolution procedure. An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service delivered directly to viewers through the internet, where all discussions are paid as data, so avoiding monopolistic rivalry with cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms. Through social media, surveillance functions and legislation have progressed from the Indian Telegraph Act's (1887) interception of voice conversations to the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code 2021's interception of digital communications and monitoring of data.

Any individual, group, or organization that monitors a person's information or data violates his or her basic right to privacy. Multiple entities, including security services, monitor the target's phone calls and discussions.

It is important to stress that the focus of this study is confined to the monitoring activities of social media intermediaries and how they may impair an individual's rights under Articles 19 and 21.