Challenges in Fighting Hate Speech, False Propaganda and Abuse on Twitter in Indian Context

Abstract

The research highlights principle and specific challenges associated with the false propaganda, hate speech and abuse on twitter platform in Indian context. The paper speaks about 2 kind of challenges (1) Principle challenge and (2) Specific Challenges. Principle Challenges refer to comments expressed on the platform have varying influence on the users/ followers. Sometimes these have impact on their life and beliefs. More prominent when the content has ill informed facts and biased opinions (intentional or otherwise). Specific challenges refer to review of comments, Google reverse image search and using application programming interface to classify hate speech and abuse revealed key insights associated with limitations of the published algorithms. It also speaks about need for vigilance in regional sensitivities. The regional sensitivities of certain content and its implications on general perceptions could be really detrimental to the region in many cases (eg: Free Kashmir slogans or posters). While some of these challenges are being widely researched in a broader context, there is more specific need for India specific research. This research is intended to contributing to the growing community exhibiting need for regional or linguistic specific research. Besides, such studies could support the larger developer community to explore specific regional solutions.