Remove name, photos of RG Kar rape-murder victim, MeitY tells social media
The Supreme Court on Monday directed that the identity of rape victims should be protected and the media, including the press, shall not reveal their identity.
Following a Supreme Court order, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has asked all social media platforms to remove the name and photograph of the victim in the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case, the ministry announced in a press statement on Wednesday. The IT ministry has also directed the platforms to inform the ministry’s cyber laws division about the action taken in compliance.
The Supreme Court’s August 20 order, issued by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, in the Kinnori Ghosh & Anr v Union of India & Ors case, said, “This Court is constrained to issue an injunctive order since the social and electronic media have proceeded to publish the identity of the deceased and photographs of the dead body after the recovery of the body. We accordingly direct that all references to the name of the deceased in the above incident, photographs and video clips shall forthwith be removed from all social media platforms and electronic media in compliance of this order.”
MeitY said, “In light of this order, MeitY hereby emphasises the importance of adhering to the Court’s directive to safeguard the privacy and dignity of individuals involved and therefore social media platforms are required to take immediate action to ensure compliance with this order. … urges all social media companies to ensure that such sensitive information is not further disseminated. Failure to comply with the Supreme Court’s order may result in legal consequences and further regulatory action.”
MeitY is in the process of sending specific directions to the eight significant social media intermediaries (that is, social media platforms with more than 5 million users in India), two people aware of the matter said.
The PIB note is meant for smaller social media platforms with whom MeitY does not have direct contact, one of the people cited earlier said. It is not clear if the specific directions will include the list of URLs that social media platforms need to act on.
It is not clear what will happen to the victim’s own public social media accounts, including on Instagram from where the viral photograph was taken. HT has reached out to Meta and MeitY for more information.
The writ petition was filed by members of the Bar as the name of the victim and related hashtags “have been widely disseminated on electronic and social media platforms including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google (YouTube) and X (formerly Twitter)”. “Moreover, photographs of the body of the deceased, including video clips have been circulating on social media and electronic platforms,” the order noted.
The court noted that this was in violation of the court’s directives in the Nipun Saxena & Anr v Union of India & Ors judgement of 2018. “This Court directed that the identity of victims of rape should be protected and the media including the press, electronic and social media shall not reveal their identity,” the Monday order noted.
In compliance with the Nipun Saxena judgement, the MHA, on January 16, 2019, had issued a directive that barred anyone from printing or publishing in print, electronic or social media “the name of the victim or even in a remote manner disclose any facts which lead to the victim being identified and which should make her identity known to the public at large”. The directive noted that in cases where the victim had died or was of unsound mind, her name or identity would not be disclosed even if the next of kin authorised to do so, until the disclosure was permitted by the sessions judge. The directive noted that all authorities to whom the victim’s name is disclosed are “duty bound” to keep the identity secret.
Multiple Instagram accounts impersonating the victim have cropped up in the wake of the tragedy, all of which use photos from her actual account. Meta's platform policies allow it to take down accounts impersonating someone else.