Flight Bombing Threats: MeitY Asks Social Media Platforms To Take Action

The electronics and IT ministry (MeitY) has issued an advisory to social media intermediaries, reminding them of their obligations under the IT Act and IT Rules following multiple hoax bomb threats directed at Indian airlines. 

The ministry emphasised that the social media platforms must adhere to their “due diligence obligation” under the rules, which require them to promptly remove misinformation.

“… it is the responsibility of concerned intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to promptly take necessary action under the IT Rules, 2021 by not allowing any user to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share any unlawful or false information,” said MeitY.

Furthermore, the advisory stated that the intermediaries “must make reasonable efforts to prevent the dissemination of malicious content”, adding that failure to comply may result in the loss of liability protections under Section 79 of the IT Act.

It also mentioned that apart from removing or disabling access to misinformation, intermediaries have an additional liability under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 to mandatorily report certain offences perceived to be committed by any user of their platform, “which includes, among others, any act with the intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, sovereignty, security, or economic security of India”.

The development came days after the central government asked social media platforms like Meta and X to provide the data of the people behind the bomb threats. 

Earlier, the government had ordered micro-blogging platform ‘X’ to take steps to curb the rumours spreading on the platform. 

At the heart of this development is 150+ Indian flights receiving bomb threats over the last few days. 

Notably, earlier this year, in a similar development, the IT ministry was reportedly mulling to block end-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail. The company had earlier removed its physical servers from India in response to the country’s “new surveillance law”.