Vikramjit Singh Sahney, a member of the Rajya Sabha representing Punjab, announced on Friday that he would introduce a private member bill to seek legislation limiting hate speech on social media.
Sahney filed the “Online Hate Speech Prevention Bill 2024” today in an effort to stop the propagation of religious intolerance and communal strife on social media.
“A person who uses publishes, presents, provides or distributes, performance of any speech on any platform which spreads, provokes or arouses, religious enmity, hatred, or denigrates a person by reasons of their religion, race, caste or community, sex, national or ethnic origin, language or disability,” according to Sahney, is subject to punishment under the proposed provisions of the bill.
According to the draft bill, which is likely to be brought up at a later time, anybody who engage in the activities mentioned above will be guilty of hate speech.
According to Sahney, the antiquated Information Technology Act, 2000—a legislative framework created prior to the emergence of social media platforms—is responsible for regulating hate speech online at the moment. He emphasized how urgently a new law was needed to solve today’s issues and safeguard the nation’s social fabric.
He continued by saying that the proposed legislation aims to promote social media responsibility and digital peace.
Sahney pointed out that because the laws currently in place do not sufficiently address hate speech, the police frequently faced challenges when attempting to handle these kinds of incidents.
He claimed that the law will close these loopholes and offer a stronger legal framework to stop hate speech online, promoting a more secure and peaceful online community.