As multiple airlines reported disruptions in their operations in the past few days owing to hoax bomb threats, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has asked the social media platforms to remove such misinformation promptly.
The government has warned them of losing safe harbor status on failure to remove such misinformation from the platforms. Under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the platforms have the immunity against legal prosecution for content posted by users.
“The scale of spread of such hoax bomb threats has been observed to be dangerously unrestrained due to the availability of the option of “forwarding/re-sharing/ re-posting/ re-tweeting” on social media platforms. Such hoax bomb threats are mostly misinformation that is massively disrupting the public order, operations of airlines and security of the airline travellers,” MeitY said in an advisory to the platforms on Friday.
“The exemption from liability for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by social media intermediaries as provided under section 79 of the IT Act shall not apply if such intermediaries do not follow the due diligence obligations as prescribed under the IT Act read with IT Rules, 2021 or abetted or aided, in the commission of the unlawful act,” the advisory said.
The ministry also cited the provisions of the IT Rules, as per which platforms will have to provide information on the matter to law enforcement agencies within 72 hours.
The issue assumes significance as in the 12 days, more than 275 flights operated by the Indian carriers received hoax bomb threats. Most of the threats were issued through social media.
The government said the platforms will also be liable for consequential action under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS) as well, in case of their failure to observe the due diligence obligations.
There is an additional liability on concerned intermediaries under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) to mandatorily report certain offences perceived to be committed by any user of their platform that includes act with the intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, sovereignty, security, or economic security of India, according to the advisory.
Last week, MeitY also held a meeting with platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Meta, Google and Telegram, on the issue. In the meeting, the platforms were told to promptly share data with law enforcement agencies about the accounts that are issuing hoax bomb threats.
