Govt: Plan to set up hub for social media dropped

‘ Government move would turn India into a surveillance state’

Attorney- general K. K. Venugopal on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the Union Government has withdrawn the request for proposal ( RFP) notification to set up a social media communication hub to allow tracking of messages.

The A- G made this submission before a threejudge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A. M. Kanwilkar and D. Y. Chandrachud hearing a writ petition filed by Trinamul Congress legislator Mahua Moitra challenging the move to set up a social media communication hub.

The A- G said following the observations made by the Supreme Court on the last hearing, the Centre had withdrawn the RFP notification. The government will undertake a review of the whole issue and hence the petition has become infructuous, he said. Taking note of the submissions, the Bench disposed of the writ petition.

In the previous hearing, the court disapproved the Centre’s move to track social media and said letting one’s social media content tracked and regulated by the government would turn India into a “surveillance state”. Under this proposed by the ministry of information and broadcasting, the mechanism is to be made operational at the district- level for collecting and analysing digital and social media content.

The counsel for Ms Moitra had said that the government is trying to monitor social media content of individuals by tracking their social media accounts such as those on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and their e- mails. Appearing for Ms Moitra, senior advocate A. M. Singhvi had submitted that the move was completely violative of the right to privacy and would be invasive of the fundamental rights.

Justice Chandrachud then observed: “The government wants to tap citizens’ WhatsApp messages. Tracking and regulating social media content will transform us into a surveillance state”.

The government had claimed that the move would keep it abreast of citizens’ view on various programmes and help understand their perception on various schemes. It had claimed that through SMCH, it would attempt to inculcate nationalist feelings among citizens and be able to counter campaigns intended to harm India’s image globally.

Mr Singhvi had argued that proposal to set up SMCH would become a tool in the hands of private agencies to help the government launch surveillance on citizens’ activities on social media platforms in violation of right to privacy, which is a part of right to life. He said the tender for this proposal was to be finalised by August 20.