Centre says social media platforms must respect users' fundamental rights

The Centre told the Delhi High Court that social media platforms must be held accountable for “subjugating and supplanting fundamental rights like the right to freedom of speech and expression, otherwise the same would have dire consequences for any democratic nation.”

The centre explained that a platform may give prior notice to the user and seek removal of specific information or content that violates the platform policies or the applicable Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules and only in cases where the majority of the contents/posts/tweets in a user account are unlawful, the platform may take the extreme step of taking down the whole information or suspending the whole account.

In an affidavit, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said, “It is humbly submitted that liberty and freedom of any individual cannot be waylaid or jettisoned in the slipstream of social and technological advancement.”

It added, “In all other cases, the user needs to be given a prior notice and a transparent process of natural justice including the right to approach the grievance officer of the platform and the suitable provision for appeals so as to ensure a transparent, fair process that meets all the principles of natural justice. Any complete deplatforming is against the spirit of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India that every citizen is entitled to.”

The ministry further stated, “In the considered view of the Answering Respondent, if only some portion or few contents are unlawful then the platform may take proportionate action of removing such alleged information alone and not completely suspend the user account.”

It also stated that a user can initiate proceedings against a social media platform for suspending his or her account without a prior notice. The Ministry’s submission came in response to a petition filed by a Twitter user whose account was suspended last month for “ban evasion” (creating an account when a similar account was earlier banned), without giving him an opportunity of a hearing.