The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Trinamool Congress MLA Mahua Moitra to provide proof in two weeks to back her claim that the Centre’s proposal to hire a social media monitoring agency is aimed at “mounting surveillance on social media platforms.”
“Please show us from your pleadings that the state will conduct surveillance [of] the online activities of citizens,” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi observed.
The Centre had earlier told the court that it was willing to accommodate the suggestions of the TMC leader in the proposal of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to hire a social media agency.
The petition said the UIDAI, as per its bid document, was seeking to hire a social media agency that would employ ‘online reputation management’ and ‘social listening’ tools to monitor and influence conversations related to Aadhaar on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
“Such action of the government violates her right of privacy. The scope of work of the social media agency, intended to be selected through the impugned request for proposal, is in the teeth of the judgment by this court in the K.S. Puttaswamy case, wherein a Bench of nine judges... recognised privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution,” the petition said.
Earlier, the Centre had agreed to a complete review of the social media policy and withdrawn a notification proposing a social media hub for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.