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The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in a plea which has sought holding Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp responsible for spreading hate speech.

Notice was issued by a Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

An advocate had moved the Supreme Court  and a writ petition in form of a PIL had been filed seeking regulating social media platforms.

It was filed primarily on account of tweets by one, Armin Navabi on his twitter handle account (@ArminNawabi) targeting Hindu Goddesses and depicting them in a disparaging manner.

The petitioner seeks the following relief from the respondents as follows –

1. To make separate laws for regulating social media platforms.
2. To hold social media houses directly liable for spreading hate speeches in the society.
3. To make separate laws with criminal prosecution of the people involved in such acts.
4. To establish a mechanism for automatic removal of hate speeches and fake news within a short timeframe.
5. To appoint an expert investigating officer.

The petitioner states that,

“a registered account is sufficient to start a channel, which provides a platform of uploading videos in the said social media such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. which means anyone can float anything in the social media, there is no restriction or censor for there is no regulations at all by the Government.”

The petitioner further stated that the parliament of commonwealth of Australia has passed the Criminal Code Amendment Bill, 2019 creating a regime for the eSafety Commissioner to notify the social media about the abhorrent and violent material on their platforms and an obligation for them to take such post down. “it would be beneficial for India to look at the regulations standard implemented in order to introduce guidelines which form a balance between Freedom of Speech and accountability of social media platforms.”

The Freedom of Speech and Expression under article 19(1) of the Indian Constitution is subject to reasonable restriction imposed under article 19(2). Only the content that falls within the parameters as authorized by the law could be considered ‘objectionable.

The petition has now been tagged with another pending plea seeking handing over of checks and balances on operators for violations to the Program Code, to private bodies, claiming that the Government is unable to handle the transgressions.