Social media platforms to be party to abetment

NEW DELHI: In a stringent move aimed at putting a check on the misuse of social media, the government is mulling to make social media platforms as party to abetment if they don’t take adequate and prompt action against fake messages through different social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube, Twitter, etc.

According to an internal note of Ministry of Electronics and IT, social media platforms run by any company or entity is equally responsible and accountable for the spread of fake messages or hatred messages/news designed to instigate people to commit a crime.

“If they (social media platforms) do not take adequate and prompt action, then the law of abetment will also apply to them. It is expected that while honouring freedom of speech and expression as well as right to inform and educate, the mandate of Article 19 (2) of the Constitution has to be kept in mind,” the ministry said in its internal note, which has been circulated among inter-ministerial officials for preparing a final guidelines to put a check on abuse of social media platforms.

The government is also aiming to strengthen the appropriate legal framework to ensure that significant social media and instant messaging service providers targeting Indian users do not deprive users of the country of the right to bring proceedings in India and the protections of Indian law, the note stated.

Giving details of the actions taken by the ministry to put a check on spread of fake messages/news, the internal note said, “The government had blocked 457 URLS of Facebook in 2017 and till June 2018, 499 such URLS were blocked, while 95 URLS of Youtube were blocked in 2017 and 57 such URLS were blocked till June 2018.”

In 2017, 321 URLS of Twitter were blocked for spreading fake messages, while 88 URLS were blocked till June 2018, the note said.

The government is also mulling to make it must for social media platforms to

locate their grievance officers in India who would act as the point of contact for all communication with regard to such grievances.

“The duty of such grievance officers should cover not only to receive grievances on a realtime basis but also to inform

law enforcement agencies,” the internal note said, adding that directives would be issued in public interest to all such social media platforms to ensure that their platforms do not become vehicles for promoting hatred, terrorism, money laundering, mob violence and rumour mongering, etc.