Government panel suggests strict laws and punishment for online hate speech

A government panel has recommended stricter laws with punishment for hate speech and attempts to incite hatred online.

The expert committee, headed by former law secretary and Lok Sabha Secretary General TK Viswanathan, was constituted by the Centre after the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act in 2015, The Indian Express said. It wants the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the IT Act to be amended with stringent provisions.

Panel member Dr S Sivakumar, also a member of the Law Commission, told the newspaper: “We decided there was no need to re-introduce Section 66A, but we need to strengthen the Indian Penal Code instead.” The panel submitted its report to the home ministry last week.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court too expressed concern over rampant abuse on social media and agreed with senior advocates Fali Nariman and Harish Salve that the people responsible should be dealt with strictly.

The expert panel suggests prohibiting incitement to hatred with punishment of up to two years or fine of Rs 5,000 or both, by amending IPC section 153 C to include in communication “spoken or written words, signs, visible representation, information, audio, video, or combination of both, transmitted, retransmitted through any telecommunication service, communication device or computer resource”.

Among other recommendations, it calls for punishment of up to a year, or Rs 5,000, or both for causing fear, alarm or provocation of violence in certain cases by amending IPC section 505 A – punishment of any person or group of persons who intentionally, on grounds of religion, race, caste or community, gender, sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability or tribe, uses any means of communication to communicate.