Digital Threats and Constitutional Rights: Regulating AI and Social Media in India

Growing misuse of social media calls for an urgent move towards greater legal regulation to control the menace of fake news, hate speech and disinformation among democracies. Online interactions have undergone an evolution that threatens not only free speech, privacy, data protection, national security but democracy as a whole. Equally destructive is Artificial Intelligence (AI) threat to decisional and informational privacy. AI is the engine behind Big Data Analytics and the Internet of Things. While conferring some consumer benefit, their principal function at present is to capture personal information, create detailed behavioural profiles and sell us goods and agendas. Privacy, anonymity and autonomy are the main casualties of AI’s ability to manipulate choices in economic and political decisions. The deployment of various AI systems has raised concerns about their potential negative impact on constitutional values enshrined in the Indian Constitution. In particular, the adoption of AI principles would have to strictly comply with the standards of anti-discrimination, privacy, the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble peaceably and the right to freedom of association as provided for in Part III of the Indian Constitution and interpreted by the Supreme Court of India. For instance, the right to privacy has been interpreted by the Supreme Court of India in the case of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India to broadly include autonomy, choice, and control in the context of informational privacy. The subject matter assumes significance, in a democracy like India, which has notified a new regulatory regime - Information Technology Rules, 2021 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The fact-finding review paper aims at mapping the evolution of laws governing online content in India. The study will be based on reviewing existing laws, regulations, policies, research papers, media reports and articles.