Social Media Users

Abstract
This article explores the law awareness level of social media users in North India.
Social Media is now an important part of our daily life and intuitions, it can now
significantly impact reputation of an organization and a person. Despite the
growing interest in the social media by the internet users, there seems to be very
limited understanding of rules and regulations of social media law. only 20.4%
male and 21.8% female respondents are fully aware about the law and regulation
of social media. Most of the social media users (71%) want strict legal sanctions
for the regulation of social media and only 10% social media users have
complained regarding any misuse or wrong over social media. As per the finding
of the survey awareness about regulation, security & safety, cybercrimes and
vulnerable facets of ICT is very low in India.
Keywords : Social Media users in India, Social Media Law, Social media, Legal
awareness, ICT Law

Introduction

"The number of internet users worldwide in 2019 is 4.388 billion, up 9.1% yearon-year. The number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up 9% year-on-year. The number of mobile phone users in 2019 is 5.112 billion, up
2% year-on-year" (Chaffey, 2019).

Social media comprises primarily computer and mobile phone based websites and
software applications, meant for sharing, discussing and dissimilating information
among users with the medium of Information and Communication Technology (
ICT), that provides a virtual platform to communicate or socialise through words,
pictures, films, and music (Tiwari & Ghosh, 2018).

It has been defined as, social network sites run through web-based services to
provide users medium to construct a public or semi-public profile within a
bounded system/network. These sites articulate a list of other users with whom a
user attached on such site can share a connection, and view and traverse his list
of connections and those made by others within the system (Boyd & Ellison,
2007))

As per Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein social media is “a group of internetbased applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user- generated content”
(Kaplan & Haenlein,2010).

Technological development has been seen as one of the main factors effecting the
Mass Communication process around the world. With the advent of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) a revolution has been seen in field of
communication and media by the masses. India is now the second-biggest
smartphone market in the world and emerged as a key battleground for social
media platforms (Hutchinson, 2019).

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Volume 9, Issue 6, 2019
ISSN NO: 2394-2886

It is not an exaggeration to assert that social media platforms due to its
unprecedented speed and reach has redefined the pattern and nature of social
interaction. It has improved social communication both in terms of speed and
geographical reach. But at the same time, misuse and abuses by using social media
platforms as a tool are not uncommon. It can materially affect the reputation of a
person, if it is misused by some notorious social element.
Digital revolution in India has increased the internet users, as per the latest report
of ICUBETM 2018 internet users in India grow 18 % annually and 566 million
people now use internet in India as of December 2018, it will touch 627 million in
2019 (ICUBE, 2019). In comparison to cities, Internet users are growing at twice
the rate in the villages of India. 4G network is an important reason for the
revolution in the internet.
Many new platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter have brought
an unprecedented change in the field of masses’ political and social activities. ICT
know no boundaries and doesn’t discriminate on the name of religion, caste,
gender, race or class. So in society like India especially in Urban areas almost
every individual is one way or another active on social media.
Social media has become an important part of our lives. New ways of interacting
have developed by the Social media technologies (Hansen et al., 2011). India is the
largest social media users after the Saudi Arabia's world largest social media usage.
Social media comprises of virtual platforms over cyber worlds/ sited for sharing
and dissimilating information, ideas and expressions through information and
communication technology (ICT). It provides a virtual/ artificial man made world/
Space for interaction through mobile and computer based applications as an
alternate of physical real world interaction with members of the society, thus called
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Volume 9, Issue 6, 2019
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social media sites. Though speed and reach are its hallmarks in comparison to
tradition mediums of social communication.
But shortly India will become the largest users in social media. Users are
increasing at a revolutionary unpreceded pace, and it has become an effective and
popular medium of social interaction in human life. It has redefined nature, scope
and limits of interaction with people. But this new artificial medium for share
information, ideas and thoughts has potential to expose the users especially less
cyber/digitally-literate users for threat of many dangerous wrongs from identity
theft, misuse of data, frauds to threat to the integrity, security and unity of the
Nation and harmony of the society. Misuses/abuses like hate speeches, fake news,
and brain washing to misguide the innocent minds is not uncommon at social
media sites. And daily new category of wrongs and abuses over social media sites
or by its misuse have been witnessed. So to make it a safe, secure and credible
medium to interact, its regulation is a question before society and state.

Facebook's recently change the rules to stop harmful content circulations. It will
limit the use of Facebook's platform for sharing misinformation and potentially
harmful content. As explained by Facebook "As part of the Safe Communities
Initiative, we will be holding the admins of Facebook Groups more accountable for
Community Standards violations. Starting in the coming weeks, when reviewing a
group to decide whether or not to take it down, we will look at admin and
moderator content violations in that group, including member posts they have
approved, as a stronger signal that the group violates our standards (Hutchinson,
2019)."

Existing Law/ Regulation

Social media today has become a very effective tool that provides an open platform
for every person to keep their point of view. According to Mayfield (2008) social
media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media.
In India Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 has been the main statute to
regulate various activities over cyber space and computer including social media
sites/platforms. For the first time, a model law on e-commerce was adopted in
1996 by the United Nations Besides IT Act, 2000 other civil and Criminal Law
provisions and statutes like Indian Penal Code, 1860, Indian Contract Act, 1872 )
etcetera can be applied to curb the wrongs which otherwise qualify their provided
ingredients even using social media sites as a tool. But comprehensiveness and
exhaustiveness of IT Act, 2000 read with other laws as above mentioned has been
often doubted to cover wrongs over social media sites/ Platforms properly. Many
internal regulation checks and mechanisms are also provided on many social sites
platforms, whose efficacy and expediency is also sometimes questions.
So the object of this paper is to analyses the understanding, opinion and experience
of educated class of society regarding potential threats and regulation of social
media sites.

Recently Indian state court in Tamil Nadu has enforced a nation-wide ban on a
social media app TikTok for distributing potentially illegal content. As per the
analytics firm Sensor Tower TikTok had been downloaded more than 240 million
times in India. Now social media platforms have come under increasing scrutiny
(Hutchinson, 2019). The use of the Internet and its success for shaping the
society has been largely researched in various subjects and defined in various
terms. But not much researched have done in the field of awareness of rules and
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Volume 9, Issue 6, 2019
ISSN NO: 2394-2886

regulations by the social media users, in this study we will examine the awareness
of social media law among the users in North India. 

Literature Review
As there is not much work available, i.e. papers and reports, regarding our topic of
research, we have gone through following available resources.

As per Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) social media is “a group of internet- based
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web
2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user- generated content.” Boyd &
Ellison ( 2008) define it as “social network sites as web-based services that allow
individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded
system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and
(3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the
system.” Tiwari & Ghosh, said Social media comprises primarily computer and
mobile phone based websites and software applications, meant for sharing,
discussing and dissimilating information among users with the medium of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT), that provides a virtual
platform to communicate or socialise through words, pictures, films, and music.
Parthasarathi Pati said “The term ‘cyber crime’ is a misnomer.

This term has nowhere been defined in any statute /Act passed or enacted by the Indian
Parliament. The concept of cyber crime is not radically different from the concept
of conventional crime. Both include conduct whether act or omission, which cause
breach of rules of law and counterbalanced by the sanction of the state” (Pati, n.d.)
He further defines (“Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most complex
mischief in the cyber world. “Cyber crime may be said to be a species, where ,
conventional crime is the genus, and where the computer or mobile phone is used
Suraj Punj Journal For Multidisciplinary Research
Volume 9, Issue 6, 2019
ISSN NO: 2394-2886

as object or subject in a crime or offence. Any criminal activity that uses a
computer either as a target or a means for perpetuating the crimes fall within the
ambit of cyber crime. ) 

Rattan (2017) defines cyber law as those norms, ethics, rules and regulations which
uses of internet have to adhere for their proper activity in the cyber world. Rattan
further opined that in India most of activities and mischiefs related to cyber
activities have been regulated through the Information Technology Act, 2000,
(further amended in 2008 (hereinafter mentioned as IT ACT)). But for proper
implementation of IT Act to get proper regulation in the cyber world, the need of
the hour is to have either certain amendments in some conventional laws such as
Indian Penal Code, 1860, Indian Evidence Act, 1872 or wide interpretation is given
to others.
A recent study (Mittal & Singh,2019) shows that Cyber Crimes (IT Act + IPC
Sections) has increased by 57.1% in 2012 as compared to 2011. Cyber crime has
also affected the social media. Maharashtra is number one state of india in cyber
crime with a maximum cases reported in 2012.

As per the report by Norton Symantec in 2017, 978 million people in 20 countries
were affected by cybercrime in 2017, whereas 186.44 million Indians were the
victim of cyber crime. In India a cybercrime victim spent nearly 51 hours dealing
with the aftermath. The most popular cybercrimes faced by the internet users are
virus or other security threat on device (53%) bank card fraud (38%) account
password compromised (34%) hacking of an email or social media account (34%)
online purchase scam (33%) Clicking on a fraudulent email or providing sensitive
(personal/financial) information in response to a fraudulent email (32%). 

 

Methodology

We have used quantitative approach survey for this study, questionnaires prepared
on the Google form and sent randomly through the various type of social media
platforms between the age group of 10 to 50 above, we asked them a range of
questions with regards to their social media behavior. Respondents were educated
class comprises of Government employees, Professionals, students, Private self
employed etc from Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab.

Data was collected with a self-designed structured questionnaire with a sample of
495 (n=495) people who were using social media . The sample consisted of 56%
(n=279) male and 44% (n=216) female. About 77% (n=215) male and 49%
(n=106) women were graduate level, 23% (n=64) male and 51% (n=111) women
were undergraduate level of education. Data collected with the help of Google
forms and classified, coded and analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS).

The questionnaire was developed to measure the
awareness of legal regulation among Social Media Users in North India. 

 

Suggestions:

There is immediate need of a comprehensive, effective statute or code for proper
regulation of the social media to make it a safe, protected and peaceful world to
socialise. The Statute should be flexible and dynamic enough to cover variety of
possible wrongs over social media platforms as these evolving social media
platforms daily witness new nature of wrongs, abuses and misuses.

Further, the provisions and language of the law (statute) should be easy and simple
to understand for a Indian layman to make it approachable and useful till last mile
and least educated class of the society. Further fair, just and equitable procedure
with timely remedy against breach of any right or entitlement should be the special
focus while legislation as Indian courts delay of justice to common masses is a
issue of concern.