Centre Pulls up WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter Over Delhi Violence
Social media platforms were also warned of legal action for failing to comply with requests from law enforcement.
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The Ministry of Home Affairs pulled up social media and personal messaging platforms at a meeting on Tuesday for not taking down objectionable content and pulling down videos flagged by the police, The Hindu reported.
According to the report, the representatives of the tech giants present at the meeting were also warned of legal action for failure to comply with request for information from law enforcement agencies.
Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai had also informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that “a close watch was being kept on social media platforms which may disseminate rumours and unfounded propaganda.”
At least 45 people have died and over two hundred injured in the communal violence in northeast Delhi on 24-25 February.
The Centre has been trying to enforce proactive filtering and takedown of content through amendments to the intermediary guidelines in the IT Act, 2008. It had told the Supreme Court that the Centre would notify the amendments to the rules by 15 January but are yet to do so.
If notified, social media platforms could be compelled to take down any content that the authorities find objectionable and encrypted platforms like WhatsApp could be asked to trace the originator of forwarded texts.
The Quint reached out to the Home Ministry which confirmed the meeting.
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