Paranjoy Guha Thakurta delivers a talk in AMU

Aligarh, January 19, 2021

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, eminent journalist, media analyst, documentary maker and author of 'The Real Face of Facebook in India' explicated how social media is being used as a propaganda tool and a disseminator of misinformation and lies with a remarkable sense of thoroughness.

He was delivering a web talk on 'The Real Face of Facebook and Whatsapp in India', to mark the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) centenary celebrations organised by the Department of Mass Communication.

Undoubtedly, it has been possible due to readily accessible Internet, abundance of smartphones and cheap data, said Paranjoy.

 "There is little doubt that Facebook and WhatsApp have changed our society significantly as both are thought about as components of political management and network," he asserted.

"Social media has triumphed in making politics appear akin to a game and in the process disrupted and weakened systems and institutions responsible for strengthening democracy and provided authoritarian rulers opportunities to manipulate electoral processes," warned Paranjoy.

Speaking on the dark side of social media and privacy violations, he asked: "Have you noticed how some of the ads on the sites you visit seem to be a perfect match to your interests? Do you think it is a coincidence? On the web it certainly is not the case."

"As advertisers would do just about anything the online environment allows them to do-even if it means breaking your online privacy-to develop new ways to promote products. And the easiest way for them to find out your likes and habits is keeping a close eye on your social media behaviour," elucidated Paranjoy.

He emphasised that in India, like other countries advertisers are invading the social media privacy of individuals and taking advantage of their data through various ways.

"Research companies, harvesting personal data and conversations from the social media sell the compiled data to other companies. These, in turn, use details to design targeted ad campaigns. While one might argue that people are knowingly sharing personal details on social media and thus, it is free for use, data harvesters do not ask for the owner's consent. And this raises an ethics as well as an online privacy problem," said Paranjoy.

He pointed out that with an estimated 300 million citizens with internet-enabled mobile phones, India has emerged as one of the biggest social media factories in the world. Unlike other countries, Facebook's criticism in India has been subdued.

Even people, who do not know how to use internet are somehow leaking out their personal information through online generation of Aadhar cards and other identifications, said Paranjoy.

Emphasising that Alphabet and Facebook are the two biggest organisations sharing personal information of individuals, Paranjoy said that it is imperative that these organisations should split and proper surveillance needs to be done on their activities.

He suggested dividing Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram into three different organisations.

"It is ironical that even as millions of Facebook users' personal information was wrongly harvested from the website by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that has counted US President Donald Trump's election campaign; Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg refused to share his personal information with a journalist during a press briefing," pointed out Paranjoy.

He stressed, when Twitter on front lines of history, decided to permanently suspend Donald Trump's account; Facebook should also consider taking concrete steps in India and China.

Presiding over the web talk, Prof M Shafey Kidwai, Chairman, Department of Mass Communication said that crony capitalism through regulatory interventions is leaving its effects.  

He also spoke on the necessity of questioning the largest social media organisations and taking a critical look at the working of Facebook and WhatsApp in India.

Assistant Professor, Huma Parveen conducted the programme.