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A WhatsApp Message Can Get You Arrested

Team SoOLEGAL 20 Nov 2017 11:00am

Image courtesy: Whatsapp Admin Gets Arrested For Sharing Vulgar Image Of PM Modi; 2nd Such Arrest In India! A WhatsApp Message Can Get You Arrested

The UPA-regime section 66A of the IT Act, scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2015, was broadly worded enough to book you if you caused annoyance, inconvenience, insult or injury online.

Social media arrests are not new, and nor are they a uniquely Indian form of repression. The UPA-era Section 66A of the IT Act, scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2015, was broadly worded enough to book you if you caused annoyance, inconvenience, insult or injury online.

Eighteen-year-old Zakir Ali Tyagi was just kidding when he asked, on Facebook, exactly how the river Ganga was a "living entity". He also went on to discuss the BJP's Ram Mandir plans. For these random comments on Facebook, the Muzaffarnagar teen was made to spend 42 days in jail, paying bribes even to use the toilet. He was picked up by the police this April, and booked under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and Section 66 of the IT Act. He was brutally beaten, and called a terrorist. By the time he emerged from jail, he had lost his job at a nearby steel plant.

Across Indian states, citizens like Tyagi are being picked up by the police for unguarded comments on social media, and the arbitrariness of these arrests has created a climate of anxiety. In most cases to hit the news, those charged have been ordinary people, without the clout to incite mass violence.

Other sections of the IT Act, including clauses on obscenity and morphing, are being used to arrest people, says lawyer and internet freedom advocate Apar Gupta. The morphing of images may be a concern when women are misrepresented, but "by itself, a morphed image in a political caricature or piece of satire is not an illegal or criminal act", he says. Similarly, lying and cussing are human activities that also exist online; they do not inherently deserve criminal sanction. Even rumours are not illegal by themselves, the CrPC should kick in only in instances where they might incite violence or have other criminal implications.[Inputs TOI]



Tagged: Social media   WhatsApp   Supreme Court   Jail   Section 66  
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