Hearing a petition seeking directives to set up a mechanism to check the fake news and incendiary messages on social media, the top court of India, the Supreme Court has served notices to Twitter and Union government on Friday.
The Supreme Court has heard the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinit Goenka. The PIL was filed in May 2020, but the Supreme Court heard it today.
The Constitutional bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde which also comprises justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has served notices to Centre and Twitter to seek their response on setting up a mechanism.
Advocate Ashwini Dubey, appearing for Goenka, said directions are needed for establishing a mechanism to regulate hateful content on the social networking site.
Senior Counsel Ashwini Dubey has appeared before the Supreme Court for Goenka. In the petition, the BJP leader has claimed that the content that appears on Twitter is being used to create panic among some sections of the society.
In the Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the BJP leader has also alleged that the microblogging site Twitter knowingly promotes messages that are against India.
“Twitter and social media companies are profit making companies and expecting them to have safeguards for making social media safe and secure is important. The logic and algorithms that twitter use should be shared and vetted by Indian government authorities or competent authority for screening anti India tweets,” the petitioner said in the plea.
The petitioner has also alleged that the fake news spread on social media is the reason behind many riots, like the Delhi riots, and said that the fake news is spread to create communalism and spread casteism
While issuing the notices to Twitter and Union government, the Supreme Court bench said that it is serving notices to the parties to tagg the plea with other pleas that are planning on similar lines.
It has to be noted that, the Twitter and Centre are at the loggerheads over the issue of blocking some Twitter accounts that are reportedly spreading misinformation and inflammatory messages on farmers’ agitation.
