Is Social Media an Easier way to Defame People? A Critical Study of Freedom of Speech in Digital India

Speech is God’s gift to mankind. Through speech a human conveys his thoughts, sentiments and feeling to others. Milton in his Aeropagitica says that without this freedom there can be no health in the moral and intellectual life of either the individual or the nation. That’s why a freedom of speech and expression is a natural right, which should be acquired by the birth but is available only to limited few in world context. Speech and expression plays a vital role in guaranteeing a person the liberty to do or not to do certain things it desires. It helps in development of nation from being a deficient democracy to a competent and accountable one. Almost the whole world has accepted it as basic right of the person. Freedom of speech & expression is not only a basic human right, but in most of the countries it is considered as the fundamental right of a person, without this the development of any person is not possible and if one is not able to develop oneself, one can’t give its contribution in the development of the country and world. By having this point in the mind Article 19, Freedom of Speech & expression was added in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The UDHR holds that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”