HEADLINES VS. LAW When Media Narratives Clash with Legal Truth
Articles

TRIAL BY HASHTAG: SOCIAL MEDIA, FREE SPEECH, AND THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL IN INDIA

PDF
  • Palak Aggarwal
Palak Aggarwal
2nd Year LL.B. Student, Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, Delhi

Published 2026-05-06

Keywords

  • trial-by-hashtag,
  • social media,
  • digital outrage,
  • India,
  • public opinion,
  • legal process,
  • viral narratives
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Aggarwal, Palak. “TRIAL BY HASHTAG: SOCIAL MEDIA, FREE SPEECH, AND THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL IN INDIA”. Swami Vivekananda University Press, May 2026, pp. 79-88, https://swamivivekanandauniversitypress.com/index.php/svup/article/view/494.

Copyright (c) 2025 Swami Vivekananda University Press

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The present paper investigates the emerging forms of media trials conducted by social media through reels, trending hashtags and algorithmic amplification - i.e., ‘Trial by Hashtags’. The paper also engages with several cases occurring in the recent past to understand and analyse how rights enshrined by the Constitution are balanced to ensure peace and justice in society and for the truth to prevail. This paper adopts a qualitative, case-based approach. This study examines a range of publicly documented incidents in India that sparked extensive, hashtag-driven discussion across platforms such as Twitter (X), Instagram, and YouTube. The cases selected span a variety of legal and social contexts, including criminal investigations, constitutional disputes, and instances of online harassment. To situate these examples within a broader legal and societal framework, the analysis draws on secondary sources such as legal scholarship, judicial observations, and media commentary.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199328655.2026.79-88

PDF