The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centreand Twitter on a plea seeking a mechanism to check content on Twitter spreadinghatred through fake news and instigative content through bogus accounts.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde issued the notice on a plea by BJPleader Vinit Goenka seeking a mechanism to check content on Twitter spreadinghatred through fake news and instigative content through bogus accounts. Thetop court tagged the matter with similar pending petitions seeking social mediaregulation.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, argued that presentlytotal number of Twitter handles in India are around 35 million and total numberof Facebook accounts are 350 million and experts says that around 10 per centTwitter handles (3.5 million) and 10 per cent Facebook accounts (35 million)are duplicate/bogus/fake.
The petitioner argued that these fake Twitters handles and bogus Facebookaccounts, have been created, in the name of eminent people and high dignitariesincluding the President of India, Vice President of India, Prime Minister ofIndia, Chief Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, Chief Justice of India and thejudges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Goenka said that these fake Twitter handles and Facebook accounts use realphotos of constitutional authorities and eminent citizens. As a result, thecommon man relies upon the messages published from these Twitter handles andFacebook accounts.
The petitioner insisted that fake news is the root cause of many riots,including the one in Delhi earlier this year. Moreover, bogus accounts are usedto promote communalism, which is a threat to the unity of the country. The pleaargued that political parties use fake social media accounts to tarnish theimage of opponents during elections, and also self-promotion.
The plea sought the apex court to issue direction to the Centre, Ministry ofInformation & Broadcasting, Ministry of Law & Justice, and TwitterIndia to make a mechanism against the social media accounts in order to stopthe hatred, fake, instigative and other news which are contrary to the law ofthe country or violates the law of the country.
The plea also sought directions to make a law to initiate action againstTwitter and their representatives in India for wilfully abetting and promotinganti India tweets and penalising them.
The petitioner cited that the Ministry of Home Affairs has banned Sikhs forJustice (SFJ) under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act on July 10,2019, yet this banned organisation continues to have an active presence onTwitter promoting its agenda. The petitioner argued despite sending arepresentation to the authority concerned no action has been taken againstsocial media giant Twitter.