New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre and Twitter seeking a mechanism “to check content and advertisements spreading hatred through fake news and instigative messages through bogus accounts”, especially the micro-blogging website. The Court was hearing a plea filed by BJP leader Vinit Goenka which said there are hundreds of fake Twitter handles and bogus Facebook accounts in the name of eminent people and high dignitaries.
Issuing notices to the Centre & Twitter, a bench led by the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said that the matter must be tagged with similar pending petitions seeking social media regulation.
Advocate Ashwini Dubey, appearing for Goenka, said directions are needed for establishing a mechanism to regulate hateful content on the social networking site.
The order comes at a time when the Centre and Twitter are engaged in a bitter row over the fate of a number of tweets and accounts. The Central government had 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.
The Centre also prepared draft rules to regulate social media, streaming and OTT (Over The Top) platforms, and news-related sites. The rules of the Centre call for a self-regulatory mechanism that will include a code of ethics and compliance reports. The draft regulations from the Centre mention the need for a chief compliance officer who will respond on a 24×7 basis to any complaint from law enforcement. Moreover, there will be a portal dedicated to grievance redressal and an oversight mechanism.
According to reports, the Centre will “coordinate adherence to code of ethics by publishers and self-regulating bodies” and develop the oversight mechanism.