Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that no matter which government is in power, it will want to control social media and not let it grow as social media is the voice of the people and can make any issue go viral. Mr. Kejriwal also criticised the Central government for not delivering on economic development and said that if the situation stays the same, the “aam aadmi” will vote it out of power in the general election. ”.
The CM was speaking at the launch of a book written by social media activist Ankit Lal titled “India Social” and was joined by former Union Minister Arun Shourie in discussing the impact that social media has had on politics and society over the past decade.
Mr. Shourie said that social media has proved how effective it can be, with a party comprising mainly part-time volunteers leveraging it to create a political tsunami in Delhi.
He also pointed out how an aggressive social media campaign around “Vibrant Gujarat” helped turn around Narendra Modi’s image in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Both speakers said that what has changed over the years is that earlier, comments below a post would be the actual opinion of people but now, because of trolls, social media has lost its credibility.
Speaking strongly against hate messages on social media, Mr. Kejriwal said that if the Delhi Police was under his government’s control, it would have put an end to such messages as trolls were cowards hiding behind anonymity and could easily be silenced.
Mr. Kejriwal also said that with cases coming to light on how the judiciary can allegedly be bought and threatened with death, democracy was under threat.
