CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered notices to the headquarter offices of social media giants including WhatsApp and Twitter in the U.S, after taking a serious note of the claim that the firms are not responding to queries of law enforcement agencies in connection with complaints of cyber crimes.
A division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad passed the interim order based on the submissions made by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police that they hardly ever get responses or information from social media firms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and WhatsApp.
Hearing a PIL petition moved by Antony Clement Rubin that sought direction to the Centre to declare mandatory linking of Aadhaar cards with social media accounts to check cyber crimes, the bench directed the companies to explain why they should not be impleaded in the plea as party respondents.
Similar notices have also been issued to offices of Facebook and YouTube in Hyderabad.
Victims who suffer as a result of access or usage of social media should be able to access a grievance officer of the firm through the contact published on its website, the bench said adding that a mechanism to approach the officer should also be elaborated.
But as per the submission made by the CCB, although request has been made by to furnish details, social media companies have not obliged in many cases and also rejected the requests, the court added.
Gazette notification published: AG
Chennai: Advocate-general Vijay Narayan told a division bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday that a gazette notification had already been published with regard to establishment of Lokayukta in the State. Recording the submission, the bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramanoium Prasad closed a PIL petition from G Ramakrishan, state secretary of the CPM, seeking a direction to the State government to establish the Lokayukta in the State.