Safeguarding Free Speech While Tackling Misinformation on Social Media Platforms

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-426-6_2How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Free Speech; Misinformation; Social Media Platforms; Content Moderation; Algorithmic Transparency; Digital Content etc.

Abstract

Social media platforms have changed the way knowledge is shared, so enabling more free expression and worldwide connections than ever before. But for democratic values, public health, and the stability of society, the dissemination of misleading information presents a major challenge. This paper examines closely the difficult equilibrium between safeguarding free speech and stopping the dissemination of misleading information on social media platforms. The first section of the paper discusses how social media might enable individuals to disseminating false information as well as express themselves. It highlights the moral and legal issues resulting from content control strategies including fact-checking, de-platforming, and algorithmic filtering running across people’s fundamental rights to free expression.

The study examines how local laws try to balance several needs using the Indian legal system more particularly the Information Technology Act, 2000 and its associated rules. Focusing on the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence-based solutions, the study explores in more detail the part technology plays in content control. AI can make things more scalable and efficient, but it also brings up questions about computer bias, openness, and responsibility. In the end, this study says that protecting free speech and fighting false information are not opposite goals that can’t be achieved together. Instead, they need complex, multi-stakeholder methods. The main suggestions are to make platform operations more open, teach people how to use technology better, and make sure that efforts to fight fake news don’t violate people right to free speech. The study aims to add to the ongoing conversation about making the internet a safer, fairer, and more welcoming place for everyone by looking into these complicated problems.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Amrita Singh
AU  - Inderpreet Kaur
AU  - Abhay Kant Upadhyay
AU  - Mansi Trivedi
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/06
TI  - Safeguarding Free Speech While Tackling Misinformation on Social Media Platforms
BT  - Proceedings of the National Seminar on Enhancing Privacy Protection in the Digital Age: Legal Challenges & Innovations (NSEPPDA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 4
EP  - 21
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-426-6_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-426-6_2
ID  - Singh2025
ER  -