Sushant Singh Rajput case: Shiv Sena MP seeks probe into misuse of social media platforms

Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah and Union minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad

Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah and Union minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad to investigate the misuse of social media platforms to “spread lies, and hate, and to destabilise governments as well as undermine constitutional institutions”. In her letter, the Rajya Sabha MP also called for formulation of guidelines urgently to hold social media companies accountable.

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Chaturvedi, in her two-page letter, referred to the 1 lakh “fake and illegitimate” social media accounts that were created to the intent to malign the Maharashtra government and Mumbai Police. The Mumbai Police recently found that over 1 lakh fake social media accounts were created a day after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

“In context of the suicide of an actor in Mumbai, numerous social media accounts were used to spread conspiracy theories and cast aspersions on the efficiency of the Mumbai Police,” Chaturvedi wrote in the letter, adding that freedom of expression was used to throw up unsubstantiated and unwarranted allegations on the fair investigation through fake bots.

Calling for guidelines to hold social media companies accountable, she said these companies operate on two pillars — calling themselves intermediaries, and second, they self-regulate through community guidelines. “The decade-old argument that as intermediaries they have no responsibility cannot be accepted anymore… Keeping in mind all of the above points, I urge the government to take urgent action on these matters and initiate a free, fair, and bipartisan investigation on the roles of these platforms to destroy basic tenets of democratic framework,” she wrote.

She also said that if the heads of Facebook and Twitter can be called upon by the Unites States Congress to answer questions and are being investigated in an open forum, “Then why is it that the Indian government is even hesitating to ask them to explain their role in our nation?”