Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan presented the state’s budget for the year 2022-23 on Friday (March 18).
Of all the items presented, one of the probelmatic ones is about the Social Media Monitoring Centre.
The Finance Minister in his budget speech mentioned that the state government has decided to form a special Social Media Monitoring Centre under the police department.
It has been claimed that the Social Media Monitoring is being set up to ‘to battle fake news and misinformation on social media platforms’.
However, many have expressed concerns stating that the DMK government with the state police machinery under its control might use it to muzzle dissenting voices.
Ever since the DMK came to power, there has been a series of crackdown on social and political activists.
In July a case was registered against News J, a TV channel of the AIADMK party, and members of the party’s IT wing based on some posts they had posted years ago.
YouTuber Maridhas was arrested on December 9, 2021, for a tweet that came in the light of the late Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat’s death. A DMK functionary had lodged a complaint against the YouTuber, for his tweet that compared Tamil Nadu to Kashmir. He was also charged wiith
Kishore K Swamy, another political commentator known for his brutal criticism of the DMK, was incarcerated for 6 months by slapping Goondas Act on him.
BJP IT wing office-bearer Saravana Kumar from Dindigul was arrested for criticizing the DMK government and later released following a protest by BJP cadres in front of the police station. Another BJP functionary Kalyana Raman was arrested for allegedly derogating CM Stalin and his late father Karunanidhi.
There have been multiple instances where the state police had cracked down on opposition parties and those who posted tweets criticizing the Stalin government based on complaints filed by DMK cadres or office bearers.
It is to be noted that Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan was previously the head of the DMK’s IT Wing, a post that has now been given to DMK MP T.R. Baalu’s son and Mannargudi MLA T.R.B Rajaa.
With the launch of an exclusive ‘Social Media Monitory Cell’, it is being feared that freedom of speech and expression would be at stake as the DMK government will weaponize the unit to huntdown anyone who doesn’t agree with the party.
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