Professor Daya Thussu at the 3rd International Conference for Media and Communication titled: The Ethics of Media practice and the Falsification of Consciousness in a Turbulent World at Qatar University yesterday.
Doha: Some sort of government intervention is required to regulate the Internet. But, instead of overstepping its powers, the government should strike a balance in regulating Internet and social media, said Professor Daya Thussu, Department of Journalism, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, yesterday.
Many governments around the world have used their power to stop the access to social media and they have their reasons for this. “The idea is to get the balance right. It cannot be free for all. There has to be some regulations,” Professor Daya Thussu, told The Peninsula in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of conference on ‘The Ethics of Media Practice and the Falsification of Consciousness in a Turbulent World’.
He said that there should be somebody who can stop objectionable content, whether it is the company or the government.
“This idea of self regulation that people are enlightened enough to know that doesn’t work in many cases. So some sort of government intervention is essential. How that is exercised, what is the severity of that, it is a question for discussion,” he said.
Elaborating on the issue of government censorship, he said that there is an economic aspect to the government censorship.
“China is an interesting case, there is censorship, it is institutionalized, but because of that strict regulatory regime, they were able to develop their own Internet companies. So you could argue that it is not just about suppressing freedom of expression, but there is also economic logic to it. So that’s one model,” explained Professor Daya Thussu.
On the issue of curbing the spreading of fake news, he said that social media companies are taking steps, but it is very difficult for them to totally stop circulation of fake news.
“They (social media companies) are trying but the scale is so huge it is actually very difficult if not impossible to control every bit of message that is going through,” said Professor Daya Thussu.
Replying to a question of dominance few companies in Internet, he said that it is a worrying trend and there are discussions going on to break up Internet giants. He was hopeful that the world will keep seeing emerging of new startups or platform that will eventually become big, despite dominance few companies in online space.
Answering a question about, which country or countries is expected to emerge as a big stakeholder in the world of Internet, which is dominated by US and Chinese companies, he said India is expected to be a major player in it in coming decades.
“The current Indian government is very committed to digital communications and India has the infrastructure and scale. If you see many US tech companies, lot of them are run by Indians. With right policies and right investment, India will be the country which will provide a different kind of Internet,” he said.
