Ignore or Digest, Says Arun Jaitley On Online Trolling

New Delhi: In an interview to Prannoy Roy, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said online trolling is carried out by individuals over whom a party does not have control, and one has to learn to live with it.

Asked if online trolling can be controlled, Mr Jaitley said, "I don't think a censorship of this sort is possible".

The party, he said, has nothing to do with such an activity. The party can contain its activists, elected members and spokespersons, but trolling is done by individuals. "And I don't think most of these people are bound by party discipline as such," he said.

The minister's comments came as complaints about online viciousness and abuse are on the rise from women journalists and others.

Mr Jaitley said if, in a cooler environment, one is to discuss the issue of irresponsible comments made at times on social media, "I think we have to learn to live with it. We have to ignore them, we have to learn to digest them, we have to decide our own strategy".

In the given environment, even a debate on the subject is not rationally possible "without inviting some kind of trolling on social media," he added.

Mr Jaitley said he had repeatedly called for lifting the level of public discourse in India, both in Parliament and outside, exhorting people to focus on issues and not on personalities.

Ultimately, with time, such excessive misuse of technological facilities will spell its own end, the minister said.