The conundrum of free speech

‘You've got a nerve, coming into this muhalla! I know you: my father knows you: everyone knows you're a Hindu!!' screams the Midget Queen.  Boys in their school whites and snake buckle are joining in, 'Hindu! Hindu! Hindu! From his window Midget Queen’s father joins in, hurling abuses at the new target… ‘Mother rapers! Violator of our daughters…!’ and the schoolboys have begun to chant 'Ra-pist! Ra-pist! Ray-ray-ray-pist!' without really knowing what they're saying. Their victim, Lifafa Das is trying to get away but by now he is surrounded by voices filled with blood- This episode from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, placed in the turmoil and unrest of partition, portrays the complex magic of words. Words have strange power; they can stir emotions and cause commotions in turbulent times. And these are turbulent times.

It seems as if speech has been given a free hand to prey on the life of heads that donned skullcaps, shoulders that were draped in saffron clothes and eyes that were as blue as the Kashmiri sky in the form of hate speech, misinformation, and fake news. The monster of free speech killed them! But free speech is not a monster, it the jewel that graces almost all the constitutions, it is a guaranteed human right. It is a virtue! Something that aids the social and political development of social groups and individuals alike. This argument has been put forth when Twitter chose to hide one of American President, Donald Trump’s tweet behind a warning that the tweet “glorified violence” and fact-checked another of his tweet urging people to “get the facts”. Twitter’s censorship in the face of distortions, misrepresentation and outright lies have been called out by many for curbing free speech. Facebook chose not to act on any of his identical statements posted on their platform.

Free speech might have been a virtue seventy years back when the list of human rights was being prepared. Now, it has become the Harvey Dent of the Dark Knight; two-faced. And the flip side of free speech is ugly. Words can inspire but words can also destroy. Like a curse. The time has come to make a definite move from free speech to responsible speech. Free speech has become so enormous and mighty that like giant Goliath- it has become blind and nearsighted. There has to be some David to relieve the Goliath of its miseries and that David is responsible speech. The Internet has been lauded as a bastion of free speech but it is also the breeding ground of misinformation and hate speech. Minimum government censorship needs to put on social media platforms. While some argue that this may lead to the politicization of the internet, it needs to be understood that only opinions are political in nature. Facts are not, they are objective, at least once they used to be. The society has to agree on some bare minimum- the ground rules that bind us all, before the social fabric starts to wither under tension from social media. Anything carrying the prefix ‘free’ always has a hidden toll; the toll of free speech is the life of Lifafa Das. Responsible speech is the way forward and this long march to responsibility needs to start now.

 *Wikimedia Commons; Madelgarius