NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked Google, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms to take concrete steps to prevent spread of rumours and messages that lead to unrest, cyber crimes and other nefarious activities.
Led by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and security agencies met the representatives of social media platforms on Wednesday to review their steps taken for curbing misuse of these platforms.
Government officials said these platforms were asked to put in place a system for prompt sharing of information sought by law enforcement agencies for probe. There have been several incidents in which social media platforms were used to spread hate messages and rumours for inciting violence. Social media giants are against sharing customer details and message trails due to privacy issues.
The officials said some social media representatives informed that they were taking all necessary steps to stop misuse of their platforms for spread of fake news, and rumours and hate messages. Gauba asked them to nominate India-based grievance redressal officers and to develop a monitoring mechanism for time-bound preventive and other actions for removal of objectionable content.
“Gauba asked them to take concrete steps to ensure a robust and effective system for preventing misuse of their platforms for activities detrimental to national security,” a home ministry official said.
Presenting cases
Representatives of Facebook, Google, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram briefed govt officials about steps taken to block websites and to remove objectionable and malicious content from public view.