Free speech on social media a civic duty, not just legal issue, says Supreme Court judge

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Supreme Court justice  Justice J. K. Maheshwari, Inspector General of Police and caput  of EAGLE Ake Ravi Krishna, C. Raghavachari Media Academy Chairman Alapati Suresh Kumar and Andhra Pradesh Women’s Commission Chairperson Rayapati Sailaja astatine  a seminar successful  Vijayawada connected  Saturday.

Supreme Court justice Justice J. K. Maheshwari, Inspector General of Police and caput of EAGLE Ake Ravi Krishna, C. Raghavachari Media Academy Chairman Alapati Suresh Kumar and Andhra Pradesh Women’s Commission Chairperson Rayapati Sailaja astatine a seminar successful Vijayawada connected Saturday. | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao

Freedom of code and look carries responsibility, and what is liberty for 1 idiosyncratic tin go a liability erstwhile it causes harm to others, Supreme Court justice Justice J. K. Maheshwari has said.

Addressing students astatine a seminar connected Social media maltreatment and the request to equilibrium state of look with regulation, organised by the CR Media Academy of A.P. and Swetcha The Freedom Foundation successful Vijayawada connected Saturday, Justice Maheshwari, erstwhile Chief Justice of the A.P. High Court, said that navigating the abstraction betwixt liberty and liability is not the task of judges and legislators alone, but a shared civic responsibility.

He stressed the request for introspection portion exercising state connected integer platforms. Illustrating the point, helium said that if a idiosyncratic posts a harmful video, the idiosyncratic is liable. However, if a platform’s algorithm identifies that the contented keeps users aggravated and engaged and pushes it to a cardinal much feeds to maximise advertisement revenue, the question of motivation and ineligible work becomes much complex.

Justice Maheshwari observed that societal media level owners often prioritise commercialized interests implicit imaginable harm, making it indispensable for individuals to enactment responsibly portion utilizing specified platforms.

Referring to the Supreme Court judgments successful Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India 2020 and Shreya Singhal v. Union of India 2015, helium said determination is simply a wide favoritism betwixt violative speech, harmful code and amerciable speech. The law, helium noted, does not measurement successful simply due to the fact that idiosyncratic is offended, but intervenes erstwhile code amounts to incitement oregon violates ineligible limits.

Inspector General of Police, EAGLE, A.P., Ake Ravikrishna, underlined that debates, satire, reporting and dissent are captious to ideology and indispensable beryllium protected. However, the Constitution does not shield abuse, hatred code oregon calls to violence, helium said.

He cautioned that portion implicit suppression of online contented could beryllium antagonistic productive, unchecked societal media platforms could undermine the precise intent for which they were created. A unfortunate centric effect is indispensable to code instances of online maltreatment effectively, helium added.

A.P. Women’s Commission Chairperson Rayapati Sailaja recalled instances successful which women of Amaravati were targeted connected integer platforms. She said the authorities is contemplating a prohibition connected societal media entree for children beneath 16 years, clarifying that the nonsubjective is not to curb look but to forestall exploitation.

A.P. Press Academy Chairman Alapati Suresh Kumar told students that societal media platforms, which importantly signifier opinions and lifestyles, run chiefly for nett alternatively than nationalist welfare.

Published - February 28, 2026 08:21 p.m. IST

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