SC issues notice to Twitter & Centre on plea over fake news, hate speech & accounts' KYC

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Centre, Twitter and others on a plea seeking a mechanism "to check Twitter content and advertisements spreading hatred through fake news and instigative messages through bogus accounts." A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde issued the notice on the petition filed by BJP leader Vinit Goenka and directed that the matter be tagged with similar pending petitions seeking social media regulation.

Goenka had filed the petition in May last year seeking directions for the government to create a mechanism to check content and advertisements on Twitter, which are allegedly spreading “hatred amongst the communities, [are] seditious, instigative, separatist, hate-filled, divisive, against the society at large and against the spirit of the Union of India”.

The plea also sought KYC of all social media handles in the country, to make social media "safe and accountable and traceable." Goenka’s petition was filed by senior Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey. The Union of India, Law Ministry, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, and Twitter were listed as respondents in the petition.

Centre vs Twitter

The hearing comes at a time when the Centre is involved in a row with Twitter over blocking of accounts. India on Thursday warned social media platforms of strict action for failure to crack down on inflammatory content, saying they have to fully comply with the country's law.

A day after his ministry rebuked Twitter for not complying with its orders to take down inflammatory content, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in said social media platforms cannot give differential treatment while handling problems on Capitol Hill and the Red Fort.

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The government of India, he said, 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, the Ministry of IT and Electronics had expressed at Twitter for failing to remove all of the over 1,100 accounts and posts it alleged spread misinformation about the widespread protests by farmers against new agricultural laws. Prasad said the social media companies took immediate action when riots broke out at Capitol Hill in Washington but ignored similar action when farm bill protestors ran riot at Red Fort on Republic Day.

"This double standard would not work here," he said flagging inflammatory content, especially those with the hashtag of Modi planning farmers' genocide. "Yeh kya mazak hai? (What kind of a joke is this?)," he said.

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