SC notice to Twitter, Centre on the plea seeking to curb hate speech and abusive content

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre and Twitter on a plea seeking a mechanism to check content on Twitter spreading hatred 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 BJP leader VinitGoenka seeking a mechanism to check content on Twitter spreading hatred through fake news and instigative content through bogus accounts. The top court tagged the matter with similar pending petitions seeking social media regulation.

The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, argued that presently a total number of Twitter handles in India are around 35 million and a total number of Facebook accounts are 350 million and experts say that around 10 per cent of Twitter 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 Facebook accounts have been created, in the name of eminent people and high dignitaries including the President of India, Vice President of India, Prime Minister of India, Chief Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, Chief Justice of India and the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.

Goenka said that these fake Twitter handles and Facebook accounts use real photos of constitutional authorities and eminent citizens. As a result, the common man relies upon the messages published from these Twitter handles and Facebook accounts. (IANS)

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