Regulating Social Media: The Balance Between Freedom and Responsibility

Introduction

In today’s times, various social media platforms have become indispensable in our daily lives, so much so that people who inherently try to avoid social media platforms cannot do so in totality because social media platforms have become a key aspect in not only the social but also the professional environment too, with platforms such as LinkedIn serving as a requirement that must be possessed and utilized by professionals across the world, and in its role in connecting people across different hemispheres, social media has extended beyond just mere utility, undertaking different forms in terms of governance, community cooperation, sharing expressions and thoughts, etc. However, social media has stark effects to the contrary, with the stumbling blocks of cyberbullying, misinformation, and hate speech among others. The duality of the adverse effects of social media is substantial.

In response to the adverse effects of social media, various countries including India have aimed to enforce regulations in this socio-technological domain. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IM Rules), reflect the pursuance of this objective. The main objective of these rules is to effectively ensure accountability in terms of what is expressed on social media while also incorporating individuals’ rights to personal freedom.

The Duality

Social media platforms have revolutionized the very fabric of human communication, on the one hand, they make information easily available, help minorities advocate for their interests, foster self-expression, and connect people across geographical borders, but they also negatively affect humanity in terms of the algorithms formulated by closely monitoring individual behavior, these well-curated algorithms designed to obtain more engagement more often than not result in endless scrolls, which not only subdues human attention span and creativity but may also result in harmful behavior as individuals can hide behind their screen and pursue their negative interest with limited accountability.

Despite this, Social Media platforms have consistently proven themselves to foster inclusivity and help amplify concerns that aren’t highlighted or broadcasted by other mainstream media, moreover, this inclusivity and activism have deep rotted effects, and most of the youth population engages with content through primarily social media, therefore more and more people are forced out of oblivion due to their constant interactions with upcoming issues that are posted and amplified on these said platforms.

For Example, it is observed that in rural and underserved regions of India, the scope for the penetration of mainstream traditional media is extremely narrow and limited and this gap is therefore bridged through social media.

The Risks to Mental Health and Society

Despite the positive effects of social media, the harm that resonates cannot be overlooked, digital platforms have been known for fostering hate speeches that may lead to crime, misinformation, and toxic cultures both socially and professionally. These issues are largely detrimental to adolescents, whose early developmental stage leaves them more susceptible to online cultures.

• Cyberbullying- Harassment through social media can lead to long-lasting psychological issues, including anxiety, depression, and problems in interacting with other people socially in real life.
• Harmful Sleep- The habit-forming and addictive nature of social media, curated through addictive features like endless scrolling, can disbalance sleep schedules, exacerbating depression and anxiety.
• Toll on Self-Esteem– Social media platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, promote unrealistic beauty standards and lifestyles. Constant exposure to idealized beauty standards and way of life pressures individuals to feel less worthy or inadequate in themselves.
• Misinformation– Social media fosters the rapid spread of false information that can lead to a disequilibrium in societies, and in extreme cases, incite criminal violence, and hate crimes and eradicate the trust of individuals in such platforms. Very often, social media has been linked to communal violence and mob mentality in times of tension within the country.

The adverse effects on mental health through social media, particularly among early teens and young adults are growing increasingly alarming. Studies cited herein have consistently shown interrelationships between the heavy use of social media and increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among the users.

A 2023 study highlighted that excessive social media usage among teens raised the likelihood of suicide attempts, with odds ratios ranging from 1.03 to 5.10. These insights raise alarms and reinstall the urgent need for digit platform regulations.

The Legal Literature relating to IT.

The IT Act.

The Information Technology Act, of 2000, serves as India’s first regulatory framework to legislate upon the cyberspace. Although the initial focus of the act lay heavily upon e-commerce and cybercrimes, the Act did introduce the concept of “intermediary liability” through Section 79, which absolved digital platforms’ liability for content generated by users utilizing those platforms, provided that such platforms adhered to the proper due diligence norms. However, It was soon obvious that the Act proved inadequate to incorporate and address the complexities of the digital cyberspace comprehensively and inclusively.

The 2008 amendments to the IT Act sought to address emerging issues like data breaches in terms of consumer security and privacy and offensive online behavior. Although the following amendments did expand the Act’s scope, they also enforced controversial provisions such as Section 66A, which criminalized “offensive” online speech, such terms often leading to legal misinterpretations and ambiguity.

Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India:

The 2015 case of Shreya Singhal in the Supreme served as a pivotal judgment in the ambiance of technological cyberspace. The Court struck down Section 66A, ruling this provision unconstitutional for its ambiguous and overbroad restrictions upon the freedom of speech. This decision did undertake reinstilling the freedom of speech guaranteed by social media platforms however it also left a lot of questions unanswered regarding intermediary liability and concerns relating to content regulation, therefore leaving sufficient scope for further policy changes.

 The IM Rules, 2021

The IM Rules, 2021, represent India’s most comprehensive regulatory effort to date.

These included the Categorization of Platforms, and here platforms were categorized as “significant” or “non-significant” intermediaries based on the size of the user, with strict compliance expected from such intermediaries. Another regulation from the said rules concerned itself with the traceability of Originators, which was extremely imperative, given the lack of mechanisms for pinpointing accountability in case of policy violations of digital platforms, Under this regulation, messaging platforms were required to identify the originators of messages that are, in order for them to combat the rapid spread of misinformation. Another important aspect of these regulations was the introduction of the key feature of the Content Moderation Mandates according to which Automated tools and mechanisms were enforced to filter out and effectively remove all harmful or illegal content on the platforms, limiting the exposure of users to this content. Finally, there were rules set in place through the Grievance Redressal Mechanisms that set out to resolve complaints of users within particular timelines to deliver and ensure proper redressal timely and maintain trust in these platforms. While these measures aimed to foster accountability, they have been criticized on numerous accounts, the primary reason for criticism being the potential overreach, highlighting privacy and encryption concerns, for example, the traceability mandate.

Mental Health Implications

Adolescents and Social Media

Adolescence is a period or stage of heightened emotions and environmental susceptibility, therefore making particularly young users more vulnerable to the adverse psychological effects of social media.

The interplay, however, between social media and mental health is complex. While imprudent and overuse of social media are most definitely synced with negative outcomes in terms of psychological health, monitored and moderate engagement with such platforms can offer actual benefits that help this specific demographic(adolescents) for the better, such as garnering support from others socially and access to mental health resources to actually improve their offline conditions. Studies show that approximately one-third of adolescents with self-injurious behaviors often end up seeking help online, where they find peace and comfort by engaging in anonymous communities.

Suicidal Ideation

There is a complex interplay between social media and suicidal ideation in youth and this relationship is not only concerned with a few key aspects, but is rather a multifaceted phenomenon that is influenced by various factors albeit psychological, social, and technological. With the obvious influence of social media insidiously incorporating itself into the daily lives of adolescents, prolonged and unmonitored or moderated engagement on such platforms can increasingly heighten the risks of mental health challenges, which primarily include suicidal ideation. This tragic correlation may stem from any one of the following aspects:-

1. Amplification of Negative Emotions

Social media platforms have been curated in a specific way so as to maximize user engagement, which often leads to exploiting the psychological vulnerabilities of the susceptible, in order to maximize selfish incentives on the part of the creators of such organizations. Algorithms aim to broadcast highly engaging content, which can inadvertently result in amplifying negativity. Adolescents with still developing self-esteem and ideas of self-image have frequent exposure to curated, idealized portrayals of others’ lifestyles that foster unhealthy comparisons which only worsen their self-esteem and can lead to them feeling isolated and sheltering themselves from the external world, or perhaps feeling the need to themselves engage In making misleading content, so in order to portray their well-being in a positive light too, just to fit in into the curated atmosphere, even if their real-life starkly contradicts what they claim through their online presence. Another important aspect that adds to the flip side of the coin is that adolescents who put out original or creative content on digital platforms are often subjected to negative feedback, which is an extremely common practice observed in the comment sections of creators, where negative and downright ignorant comments are disguised as constructive criticism, and these hate comments only exacerbate the sense of not belonging and exclusion faced by creators in this case, leading to symptoms of depression.

2. Cyberbullying

As mentioned above, there is an insidiously growing trend of cyberbullying on digital platforms. Traditional bullying stands in sharp contrast to cyberbullying which has a 24/7 presence in the victim’s life, which often leads to victims having no escape from this suffocating environment. Studies show that victims of cyberbullying are at a significantly higher risk of developing mental health challenges. The anonymity of users participating actively in online platforms can additionally provide undue confidence to the perpetrators, making it easier for them to normalize harmful behaviors and commit offenses, as they conveniently hide behind their virtual masks on social media.

3. Exposure to Harmful Content

Social media algorithms very frequently expose the users who engage with sensitive content that is based on their engagement history to more instances of similar harmful content, that is bound to take an effect on their mental health. This leads to young adults and early teens who are seeking comfort or solace for understanding their struggles inadvertently exposing themselves to and countering content that is harmful such as graphic imagery of self-harm, or engaging with communities that romanticize suicide which would only exacerbate their struggles and shift their mindset from seeking help and improving themselves to normalizing depression and episodes of bad mental health.

Sometimes, viral trends on platforms promote self-harm or risky behavior masquerading as the new trend, or the new “cool” which further results in a vicious cycle of impressionable teens wanting to engage in the same, encouraging harmful actions that will only worsen existing vulnerabilities.

      4. Social Isolation

Although social media has been innately designed to connect people across different hemispheres, excessive engagement in harmful patterns on social media can instead lead to feelings of isolation experienced among people, working in a paradoxically vicious cycle. Exclusively with people who prioritize online interactions with strangers on the internet over real-life relationships, they may find themselves struggling to combat loneliness, as these virtual connections more often than not turn out to be superfluous and lack the emotional depth that stems from real-life relationships.

Conclusion

The regulatory framework relating to social media in India particularly incorporates issues on a national level that only deem to serve and further reflect an emerging broader global challenge: effectively being inclusive and acknowledging and upholding the freedoms that digital platforms offer in addition to also being mindful of the responsibility to protect users from harm.

When mental health considerations are integrated effectively into policy frameworks and the establishment of an environment that fosters digital literacy is encouraged, It is then that India can truly and effectively curate a regulatory framework that not only serves to mitigate risks related to the harms caused by social media but also harnesses the immense magnitude of potential of social media for enhancing societal good, and serving people instead of people serving the toxic environment curated by these platforms.

 

References

1. Natália Duarte de Moraes et al., Childhood Trauma and Risk of Suicidal Behavior in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder, 679 PUBMED CENTRAL (2019), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6791504/
2. Lisa H. Jaycox et al., Social Media and Suicide Risk in Youth, Special Communication, Psychiatry (2024) (manuscript on file with author).
3. Ravi Shankar & Tabrez Ahmad, Information Technology Laws: Mapping the Evolution and Impact of Social Media Regulation in India, 41 DESIDOC J. LIBR. & INFO. TECH. 295 (2021), https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.41.4.16966.
4. Elias Balt et al., Social Media Use of Adolescents Who Died by Suicide: Lessons from a Psychological Autopsy Study, 14 CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY & MENTAL HEALTH 1 (2020).
5. Siwal Ashwini, Social Media Platform Regulation in India: A Special Reference to The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, (2021)
6. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, AIR 2015 SC 1523, (2015) 5 SCC 1 (India).
7. The Information Technology Act, No. 21 of 2000, INDIA CODE (2000), https://www.indiacode.nic.in.