SC notice to Centre on plea for mechanism to verify social media profiles

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Union government on a PIL for bringing in mechanism to ensure age-based control of access to social media and development of profile verification to remove illicit content from such platforms.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian decided to examine the plea filed by law students from Bharti Vidyapeeth, Pune Skand Bajpai and Abhyudaya Mishra.

The court sought a response from the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Law and Justice, among others, on the petition.

The petitioners claimed multiplicity of accounts and unverified identities facilitated anonymity, making it easier for unscrupulous elements to upload illicit and graphic personal information on social media.

They sought a direction for formulating guidelines for verifying the social media profiles and mapping of a cyber offender. They asked the court to direct the government to include online safety in curriculum and bring in legislation to penalise impersonation on social media.