SC seeks Centre, Twitter replies on fake news plea
The petition has sought regulation of content on social media platforms
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to Central government and Twitter on a PIL filed by BJP leader Vinit Goenka seeking regulation of content on social media platforms.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Centre and Twitter Communication India Pvt Ltd on the plea, which said there are hundreds of fake Twitter handles and bogus Facebook accounts in the name of eminent people and high dignitaries.
Advocate Ashwini Dubey, appearing for Goenka, said directions are needed for establishing a mechanism to regulate hateful content on the social networking site. The bench said that it is issuing notice in the matter and tagging the plea with other pending matters.
The plea filed through Dubey said, “These fake Twitter handles and Facebook accounts use real photo of constitutional authorities and eminent citizens. Therefore, common man relies upon the messages published from these Twitter handles and Facebook accounts.”
The plea also seeks a crackdown on ‘anti-india messages’ and those attempting to trigger violence in the country by spreading ‘venomous’ messages.
The PIL said that fake news is the root cause of many riots, including the one in Delhi earlier this year, and bogus accounts are used to promote casteism and communalism which endangers fraternity and unity of the country.
“It is submitted that presently total number of Twitter handles in India is around 35 million and total number of Facebook accounts is 350 million and experts says that around 10 per cent Twitter handles (3.5 million) and 10 per cent Facebook accounts (35 million) are duplicate/bogus/fake,” the plea said.
Political parties use fake social media accounts for selfpromotion and image building and to tarnish the image of opponents and contesting candidates, especially during the elections, the plea submitted. The plea has also sought directions to make a law as per which an action can be initiated against Twitter and their representatives in India for willfully abetting and promoting anti India tweets and penalize them. The petition further said that a representation to the authority concerned to act in accordance with the law of the country against social media giant Twitter was filed but no action has been taken so far by authorities concerned.
It also pointed out that the Ministry of Home Affairs has banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act on July 10, 2019, yet it continues to have an active presence on Twitter and allegedly espouses hatred, terrorism and sedition, criminal acts. “The logic and algorithms that Twitter uses should be shared and vetted by Indian government authorities or competent authority for screening antiindia tweets... KYC of all social media handles in India must be conducted for making social media safe and accountable and traceable,” the plea said.
The court has tagged Goenka’s matter with a bunch of similar petitions already pending before the apex court.
The SC notices come amid a continuing face off between Twitter and the Central government over more than 1,300 social media accounts or posts in connection with the farmers’ protest and the violence on January 26 deemed ‘inflammatory’ by the government.
Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on
Thursday warned social media platforms including Twitter of strict action for not cracking down on alleged inflammatory content, saying they have to fully comply with the country’s law.
He said differential treatment of incidents on Capitol Hill and the Red Fort was not justified. He added that while the government was committed to freedom of media and rights of individuals but it was equally concerned about safety, security, and law and order in the country.
“Please don’t spread enmity, violence and misinformation. Please follow the Constitution of India and the law of the land,” he said replying to a question in Rajya Sabha.
On Wednesday, his ministry had expressed displeasure at Twitter for failing to remove all of the over 1,300 accounts and posts it had flagged. The government was riled after Twitter in a public blog post said it has taken down only half of the accounts and posts flagged by the government.
The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech but Article 19 (2) also says that it is subject to reasonable restrictions because of the “sovereignty and integrity” of India.
Prasad said that while social media platforms have their own self-regulatory mechanism to check and evaluate inflammatory content, that does not mean they will not follow the Indian rules. Asked about steps taken by the government to check the spread of misinformation on social media, he said “We have recently flagged Twitter” on the issue.
We know each other since the ’90s. We were both general secretaries, and we used to come on TV debates representing different views; we used to fight also in the debates. But, if we reached early, we used to share a cup of tea also and chit-chat. Later we knew each other as chief ministers, meeting at the Prime Minister’s meetings, home minister’s meetings. Then he was CM and I was health minister, and we would speak every 10-15 days...
Why we were both crying was not because we knew each other, but the reason was that, in 2006, a Gujarati tourist bus was attacked [in Kashmir], and I broke down while speaking to him. The PM was saying that here is a person who’s retiring who is also a good human being. He couldn’t complete the story because he broke down, and when I wanted to complete, I couldn’t because I felt I was back in that moment 14 years ago when the attack took place.