The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its deep concern over the misuse of social media and asked the Centre to file an affidavit within three weeks, as to when the draft rules would be framed to regulate and control the misuse of the social networking sites.
Hearing the Facebook petition, the apex court also asked the Central government to frame social media guidelines on this aspect. While observing the “dangerous turn” of technology, the bench of Apex Court, headed by Justice Deepak Gupta, said, “It is dangerous how some of these technologies work. I was thinking of giving up my smart phone and going back to feature phones”.
To this, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta replied, “it would be wise…. some of us already have. The Central government (respondent) in the case, has to apprise us within three weeks, as to when the draft rules would be framed to regulate and control the misuse of social networking sites,” the bench observed.
The Court also said that it is for the Union government to frame proper guidelines for social networking sites, Facebook and WhatsApp to provide information for offending posts. The SC also made it clear that the Central Government must not invade privacy of citizens and, at the same time, affect the sovereignty of the country.
The top court of the country was hearing a petition filed by one of the social networking sites, Facebook, for transfer of petitions pending in various High Courts across the country. The petitioner demanded to interlink the Aadhaar database with social media profiles, for authentication of identity. (UNI)
