A social activist from Meerut, UP has registered an FIR (First Information Report) against social networking giant Facebook and its members for hurting religious sentiments and “instigating communal passions”. The FIR also accuses Facebook of abusing Indian Gods and the Hindu religion in general. The activist fears that if left unchecked the site could be the cause of communal disharmony in the country. The FIR has been filed under section 66 A of the IT Act
There is a Facebook profile which has an inflammatory title and even has pictures that denigrate Indian gods. The profile picture for example has a picture of Hindu gods with the title “Three Idiots”. The creator of this profile has said that he will not take it down unless similar profiles that denigrate Islam were removed from Facebook. The profile is filled with remarks against both the religions and the activist fears that the group could end up promoting enmity between the two religions and will cause problems with the harmony between people of India.
Facebook has been accused of not paying heed to repeated attempts to delete the profile and has been charged with providing a platform for dissemination of inflammatory information. This is not the first time a social networking site has been targeted by social activists. In the past old favorite Orkut was also in the docks for being a cause of a murder.
Do you think social networks could possibly be a threat to the communal harmony of this country?
Finally it entirely depends upon the user of the technology. Facebook is just a platform. The FIR can logically be cast on the creator of such a page and not Facebook as a whole. These are just people who want to cash out money.