The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court (SC) it is withdrawing a proposal to create a social media hub, which petitioners had alleged would become a tool to monitor citizens' social media activities.
Attorney general K K Venugopal told the SC that the Centre is withdrawing the notification proposing the creation of such a hub so it can conduct a complete review of the policy on this issue.
AFP
The proposal to create a social media hub was challenged by Trinamool Congress MLA Mohua Moitra, who alleged that it was a tool being bought to create a 360 degree profile of those who make "noise" on social media on important issues.
In June, the top court agreed to hear Moitra's petition challenging the Centre's decision to create a Social Media Communication Hub (SMCH) on the ground that it was an attempt to snoop on citizens' social media activities in violation of their right to privacy.
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The government had claimed that the move would keep it abreast of citizens' view on various programmes and help understand their perception on various schemes. It had claimed that through SMCH, it would attempt to inculcate nationalist feelings among citizens and be able to counter campaigns intended to harm India's image globally.
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Moitra's counsel Mohd Nizam Pasha told a vacation bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Indu Malhotra that the proposal to set up SMCH would become a tool in the hands of private agencies to help the government launch surveillance on citizens' activities on social media platforms in violation of right to privacy, which is a part of right to life.
The tender document said the successful bidder woud be required "to collect digital media chatter from all core social media platforms as well as digital platforms like news, blogs and forums". Moitra accused the government of attempting to invade the privacy of citizens by keeping a watch on their activities online to create a 360 degree profile of persons "who are creating a buzz on social media". She said the move violated right to life guaranteed by the Constitution and other fundamental rights of citizens.
She quoted the tender document, which said, "The platform should also support easy management of controversial logs with each individual with capabilities to merge it across channels to help facilitate creating a 360 degree view of the people who are creating a buzz across various topics." She said it was nothing but snooping and violating individual's right to free speech and expression.