SC seeks social media guidelines to check misuse

... I could have purchased an AK-47 in five minutes on the dark web. Technology has taken a dangerous turn and it’s high time govt comes out with some... guidelines JUSTICE DEEPAK GUPTA

The Supreme Court has given the Union government three weeks to submit details of its progress in coming up with regulations to prevent misuse of social media, while protecting the privacy of individuals.

The court is hearing a case in which Facebook wants petitions filed in the high courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh to be transferred to the Supreme Court. Most of the petitions deal with the regulation of social media. The Madras one also deals with the possibility of linking social media accounts with the Aadhaar numbers of users and of social media companies not responding to requests from law enforcement agencies.

The bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Deepak Gupta said the government has to frame the regulations and that courts are not the right fora to deal with the issue. It added that the issue spans the state’s sovereignty, an individual’s privacy, and the imperative of preventing illegal activities.

The hearing before the apex court is important because most social media companies claim intermediary protection. Their position is that they are not really responsible for the content on their platform, and that they can’t be held accountable for this because they are not media companies (despite almost all of their revenue coming from advertising).

Justice Gupta, who was the most vocal during the hearing, did not hide his unease at the development technology has made, virtually invading privacy of individuals.

Both judges felt the necessity to identify the originators of fake news that triggers violence, is a potential risk to the country’s security, or defames individuals.