SC notice to Centre and Twitter on plea seeking mechanism to regulate content spreading hate
New Delhi : Centre, Twitter get a notice from the Supreme Court on a plea seeking a mechanism to regulate content spreading hate.
The petition was filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinit Goenka in May last year who had said that directions need to be given to “regulate hateful content” on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Notably, the Centre earlier this week had issued a notice to Twitter, asking the micro-blogging website to block over 1,100 accounts for spreading misinformation and fake news about the ongoing farmers’ protest on the outskirts of Delhi.
The Centre, which had claimed that the accounts are being used by pro-Khalistani and Pakistani supporters, had also warned the Twitter and had asked it to “comply with the Indian laws”.
“We respect social media a lot, it has empowered common people. Social media has a big role in the Digital India programme. However, if social media is misused to spread fake news, violence then action will be taken,” Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Following the government’s warning, the Twitter has reportedly taken action against 97 per cent of the accounts that were spreading “inflammatory content” over the farmers’ protest.
According to a report by The Times of India, the Twitter has taken action against 1,398 accounts out of the 1,435 handles flagged by the Centre on two occasions.
Quoting government sources, the English daily reported that some of the accounts can be “duplicates” but the step taken by the micro-blogging website is a positive one and “culminate the meaningful and healthy conversations” the two sides had earlier.
“The compliance has come in for almost the entire list of accounts that we had asked to be taken down. For the remaining, Twitter has said that it is following due process, which includes sending notice to users and other such steps,” The Times of India quoted the government source as saying.