The Right to Privacy vis-à-vis Freedom of Expression on Social Media: A Constitutional and Statutory Analysis of India's Governance Framework

Srinivas Krishnan; Sameer Kumar Dwivedi

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.87728

The Right to Privacy vis-à-vis Freedom of Expression on Social Media: A Constitutional and Statutory Analysis of India's Governance Framework

Author(s)	Mr. Srinivas Krishnan, Prof. Dr. Sameer Kumar Dwivedi
Country	India
Abstract	The unprecedented growth of social media in India has generated an acute conflict between two constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights — the right to privacy under Article 21 and the freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a). With over 462 million active social media users in India, the digital public sphere has become both the principal arena of democratic participation and the principal site of systematic privacy violation. This paper examines the legal, constitutional, and philosophical dimensions of this conflict, analysing the adequacy of India's existing governance framework — comprising the Information Technology Act 2000, the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 — in addressing the harms that social media generates. Drawing on the foundational theories of Warren and Brandeis, Alan Westin, Ruth Gavison, and Daniel Solove, the Indian Supreme Court's landmark judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (2017), and comparative analysis of the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence, the EU Digital Services Act 2022, and the UK Online Safety Act 2023, the paper identifies five principal categories of privacy-expression conflict that social media produces and evaluates the adequacy of India's legal response to each. It further analyses the constitutional challenges generated by the Kunal Kamra fact-checking amendment litigation, the Tanul Thakur blocking regime case, the Sahyog Portal controversy, and the Rajeshwari Khandasami non-consensual intimate images judgment. The paper concludes by proposing a comprehensive reform agenda — including a Social Media Privacy Rights Framework, an Independent Digital Rights Authority, mandatory algorithmic impact assessments, a seven-factor judicial balancing test, and a phased legislative roadmap — that provides a constitutionally grounded pathway toward a governance framework adequate to the challenges of the digital age.
Keywords	Right to Privacy, Freedom of Expression, Social Media, IT Act 2000, IT Rules 2021, DPDPA 2023, Puttaswamy, Algorithmic Amplification, Blocking Orders, Digital Rights, Sensationalisation, Independent Digital Rights Authority
Field	Sociology > Administration / Law / Management
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-09-14
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.87728

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The Right to Privacy vis-à-vis Freedom of Expression on Social Media: A Constitutional and Statutory Analysis of India's Governance Framework

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