Remove hoax bomb threats, report to authorities: Meity to social media companies
A MeitY advisory told the social media intermediaries that safe harbour provisions would not apply if they do not promptly remove misinformation that affects public order and security of the state such as hoax bomb threats
The social media intermediaries must remove hoax bomb threats from their platform within the prescribed legal timeframe, report them to the government agencies concerned, and share information about such posts and users with the authorised within 72 hours, or they could be treated as abettors and be held liable for consequential actions under Indian laws, the ministry of electronics and information technology said in an advisory issued on Friday, following a spate of hoax bomb threats that hit the aviation sector earlier this month.
The advisory told the social media intermediaries that they can stand to lose their safe harbour protection, that is, protection from liability for third party content, if they do not follow their due diligence obligations.
Earlier on Tuesday (October 22), MeitY had convened a meeting with X/Twitter, Meta, Google and Telegram, telling them to promptly share data with law enforcement agencies about the accounts that are issuing hoax bomb threats. In the meeting, MeitY joint secretary Sanket Bhondve had warned X/Twitter in particular that failing to act in this situation could make it an abettor in this. This includes, but is not limited to details of the person who posted it. The representative of X/Twitter said that the company would be prompt, but social media companies told the government that the requests for information must be legal and valid requests that come from authorised officers.
The latest advisory said, “... hoax bomb threats are mostly misinformation that is massively disrupting the public order, operations of airlines and security of the airline travellers. In this regard, it should be noted that intermediaries, including social media intermediaries have a due diligence obligation under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”) and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules, 2021”) to promptly remove such misinformation that affects public order and security of the state”.
“[T]here 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, among others, any act with the intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, sovereignty, security, or economic security of India. In addition to the above, the IT Rules, 2021 obligates the intermediaries to provide information under its control or possession, or assistance to the Government agency which is lawfully authorised for investigative or protective or cyber security activities, for the purposes of verification of identity, or for the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution, of offences under any law for the time being in force, or for cyber security incidents, well within the stipulated timeframes (as soon as possible but not later than 72 hours),” the advisory said.
Earlier, Indian airlines had asked the government whether there is a mechanism through which social media platforms do not allow bomb and terror threats, hoax or otherwise, to be uploaded publicly, HT reported on October 23. The airlines said they want social media companies to proactively detect them before they are uploaded and report them to the relevant authorities.
According to the 2022 amendments made to the IT Rules, 2021, all intermediaries must make “reasonable efforts by itself, and to cause the users of its computer resource to not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that” is a threat to public order, security of the state, or causes incitement to commit any cognisable offence, amongst other things.
When consultations on these amendments were held in 2022, the intermediaries and industry bodies said that this provision would mean scanning content for illegality before it was even uploaded.
After the October 22 meeting, in response to HT’s questions, a Twitter spokesperson in a statement had said, “We prohibit violent threats on X and take any such reports seriously. That includes and is not limited to threats to harm civilian infrastructure essential to daily, civic or business activities. Our teams, systems and reporting channels are at work around the clock to keep X safer for all our users in India.”
The platform did not reply to HT’s question about how it was proactively monitoring these hoax bomb threats as they now appear to be following a particular pattern.
Between October 14 and now, more than 300 flights have received hoax bomb threats, causing them to be diverted and in some cases escorted my military jets in other countries as per aviation security protocols. Each such disruption costs the airline in question about ₹3 crore, according to an airline executive.
Law enforcement agencies are looking at whether these threats are a larger part of a conspiracy given that they have now been sent to schools and universities as well.