Finance
By: Shree1news, 12 FEB 2021
The Supreme Court Friday issued a notice to Centre and Twitter India and sought responses from them on a petition seeking a mechanism to check Twitter content and advertisements spreading hatred through fake information and instigative messages through bogus accounts.
The PIL, file by BJP leader Vinit Goenka, had stated there are hundreds of fake Twitter handles and bogus Fb accounts within the name of eminent individuals and high dignitaries. Advocate Ashwini Dubey, appearing for Goenka, stated instructions are needed for establishing a mechanism to regulate hateful content on the social networking site.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, which additionally included justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, stated that it is issuing notice within the matter and tagging the plea with other pending matters.
“These fake Twitter handles and Fb accounts use real photograph of constitutional authorities and eminent citizens. Therefore, common man relies upon the messages published from these Twitter handles and Facebook accounts. Fake information 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 nation. It’s submitted that presently total number of Twitter handles in India is round 35 million and total variety of Facebook accounts is 350 million and experts says that around 10 per cent Twitter handles (3.5 million) and 10 per cent Fb accounts (35 million) are duplicate/bogus/fake,” the plea had said.
Goenka’s petition additionally stated that political parties use fake social media accounts for self-promotion and image building and to tarnish the picture of opponents and contesting candidates, especially during the elections, the plea submitted.
It 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 stated {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 involved.
Pointing out that the Ministry of Home Affairs has banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act on July 10, 2019, Goenka’s plea stated it still 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 anti-India tweets… KYC of all social media handles in India must be conducted for making social media safe and accountable and traceable,” the plea stated.
Meanile, amid the face-off between the government and microblogging platform Twitter, Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Thursday accused social media platforms of “double standards” of their strategy to recent events on the US Capitol Hill and the Pink Fort on Republic Day.
Also, Twitter has extended a commitment to “restructure” its India team and assign more senior executives to its local offices so that it may better handle authorized compliance-related issues, senior government officials informed.
Source:A-N
