The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that technology has taken a "dangerous turn" and asked the Centre to apprise it within three weeks about the time-frame needed to come up with guidelines to curb misuse of social media in the country.
A bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose expressed serious concern over some social media platforms not being able to trace the originator of a message or an online content and said the government must step in now.
The bench said neither the apex court nor the high court is competent to decide this scientific issue and it is for the government to come up with appropriate guideline to deal with these issues.
The Supreme Court says it is for the Union government to frame guidelines for intermediaries such as Facebook and WhatsApp to provide information for offending posts. But it must not invade privacy of citizens and, at the same time, affect sovereignty of the country.
(With inputs from PTI)
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