Social media misuse: SC asks centre to trace originator of info

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to file an affidavit within three weeks detailing the steps taken by it to frame guidelines to curb misuse of social media and tracing the originator of information on social platforms.
A bench of Justice Deepak Gupta misuse of social media and tracing the originator of information on social platforms and Justice Aniruddha Bose also asked the Centre for a timeframe within which the process of deliberation and formulation of guidelines will be completed.
It said that misuse of social media has become “very dangerous” in the country and the government must come up with “strict guidelines” to deal with the issue.
It added that issues concerning tracing the originator of information on social media needed to dealt with while keeping in mind the “sovereignty of the State, privacy of an individual and prevention of illegal activities”.
The top court was hearing a petition filed by Facebook for transfer of petitions pending in different High Courts across the country concerning the demand to interlink Aadhaar database with social media profiles for authentication of identity, to the top court.
Earlier, the apex court had asked Centre whether it was contemplating any move on framing some policy to regulate social media and linking of social media account of people with Aadhaar.