UIDAI proposal on social media agency: SC gives two weeks to MLA to support claim

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra to file a supplementary affidavit to back her apprehension that the UIDAI’s proposed bid to create social media apparatus amounted to “state surveillance.”

A Bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “Your (Moitra) apprehension can be baseless…state surveillance is a statement. Where are the facts? This is an expression of opinion. What is the material available on this? Your apprehension has no basis.”

It also asked the TMC leader to file an affidavit in two weeks to back her allegations. Moitra’s counsel argued that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had planned social media monitoring to see public reaction on the Aadhaar and that also included social media listening and tracking online activities of citizens.

At the previous hearing on September 11, attorney general KK Venugopal had told the court the willingness to incorporate the suggestions of Moitra in the fresh bid invited by the UIDAI to create a social media wing for surveillance of people’s reactions to the Aadhaar and to tackle negative sentiments.

The Centre had told the apex court that it would undertake a complete review of the social media policy and had withdrawn its notification proposing a social media hub for the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry after Moitra had challenged the government’s move to snoop into one’s WhatsApp, email accounts or social media posts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

After the Supreme Court rap in July, the government had dropped plan to create social media hubs for monitoring online data. The court had in July warned that the move amounted to nothing but creating a “surveillance state” and “sheer intrusion into privacy”. The proposed Social Media Communication Hub was for collecting and analysing digital and social media content.

The petition stated that the UIDAI, as per its bid document, was seeking to hire a social media agency that will employ ‘online reputation management’ and ‘social listening’ tools to monitor and influence conversations related to the Aadhaar on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The plea claimed that weekly and monthly reports are to be prepared by the social media agency, indicating the most discussed topics, top detractors, top influencers and the net sentiment related to the Aadhaar.

“The entire surveillance architecture is to be placed in the hands of private persons employed on a contract basis who will be on the roll of the service provider who emerges successful in the tender process. While surveillance by agents of the state is itself violative of the right to privacy, in this case, the privacy of citizens of this country is sought to be placed at the mercy of non-state actors which reeks of manifest arbitrariness,” the plea alleged.