Govt should not regulate social media: Shashi Tharoor

The government should not in any way regulate the content and the conversation on social media but there should be some self-regulation by the platforms themselves, said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

"I have a profound mistrust of governments including my own and I think one of the great strengths of social media is that it is an unregulated space. I don't want governments to regulate Twitter or Facebook but I want them to practice some self-regulation of some kind and it should be better than what they are doing today," Tharoor said at an event here.

The Congress MP was speaking at the Mindmine Summit 2019 which was held between August 22-23 at New Delhi. Director Vivek Agnihotri, Filmmaker Prakash Jha and Global Cyber Security practice Co-leader Akhilesh Tuteja were also on the panel along with Tharoor.

Filmmaker Prakash Jha said that as a content creator he was not in favour of any kind of regulation and added that the society was "wise enough" to "filter the good and the bad".

"The society is wise enough and has the capacity to filter the good and the bad and we do not need the censorship on anything that is being created as content. I do not trust the regulators, how can one expect the regulators to not have a bias? The content on social media will be reflective of the society we are living in," Jha said.

Director Vivek Agnihotri too voiced his support against regulations on social media platforms by stating that it would curb the creation of ideas in the long run.

"We all need information and that is why people are depending on citizen journalism, which has become possible with social media. It is wrong to say social media creates misinformation, blaming Twitter or Facebook today would be a waste of time. Some of the best talents, ideas originate there, I am against any kind of regulation as I believe in absolute freedom of speech. Because when there is true freedom of speech only then we can flourish as a society," Agnihotri said.