Bengal delegate at Eastern Zonal Council meet to stress on tough laws to control 'provocative social media'

Kolkata, July 10 (IANS) The West Bengal representative at the Eastern Zonal Council meeting to be held in Jharkhand's capital Ranchi on Thursday will stress on introduction of stringent national laws to check “provocative social media” content.

The issue of “provocative social media” content had already been highlighted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier this month.

The Eastern Zonal Council meeting will be chaired by Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah on Thursday.

Chief Minister Banerjee will not be attending the meeting because of a pre-scheduled appointment with her counterpart in Jammu & Kashmir Omar Abdullah.

Instead, West Bengal will be represented at the Eastern Zonal Council meeting by the Minister of State for Finance (Independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya.

According to a member of the state Cabinet who refused to be named, the other issue that will be raised on behalf of the West Bengal government is the long-standing matter of pending Union government dues under different centrally-sponsored schemes in the state.

“The matter of the map intended to represent West Bengal being depicted as the territory of Bihar in the 'Summary Report for the State of West Bengal’ of NITI Aayog might also be raised by the state finance minister,” the member of the state Cabinet said.

The fact that the Chief Minister was viewing the issue of “provocative social media”, was evident from her letter to HM Shah last week expressing concern over the alarming rise in cybercrime and the “rising impact of social media content”, which, according to her, was increasingly posing serious challenges to public peace.

In the letter, she also requested the Union Home Minister to introduce stringent legislative provisions that could act as an effective deterrent against the creation and dissemination of provocative content and acts perpetrated with criminal intent in cyberspace.

According to her, the current legal framework and its enforcement required further strengthening to keep pace with the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem and the sophisticated methods employed by malicious actors.

She also pointed out that “provocative social media” content might hurt religious sentiments prompting communal violence, thus disrupting social harmony and resulting in crimes against women.

--IANS

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