Social media hub idea may not take off

Social media hub idea may not take off

News:

1. The Centre government proposed to set up a social media communication hub has witness many shortfall in its implementation.

Important Facts:

2. Public sector firm Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. is handling the project.
3. The proposed of social media communication hub has faced reluctance from the bidder.
4. The last date for tenders has been extended for the fourth time after the govt. didn’t get enough bids.
5. Salient feature of the Social media hub project:

• The media persons would be employed on a contractual basis in each district to be the “eyes and ear “of the government.
• The hub will enable “listen to email” and assist the government in tailoring campaigns to promote “positive opinions and neutralize negative sentiments” about government schemes.
• The hub proposes to monitor social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even email) handles at the very local level in multiple languages to carry out “sentiment analysis”

6. Critic pointed out that:

• The proposal to set up such a hub is an indirect measure to “snoop” on and influence voters.
• It is an attempt to track down the influence-making social media users and to categories the conversations on social media into positive, negative and neutral sections.
• It aimed to track real time way the social media receives on government’s schemes.

7. Conclusion:

• The government has to rethink on the entire project and make it Sustainable.
• The government should specifically understand how the information collected by the hub would be put to use.