Question : Misuse of Social Media

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the senior official of his Ministry had a meeting with legal experts and privacy advocates to discuss various issues relating to making social media safer and to govern social media platforms in the country;
(b) if so, the details and the outcome thereof;
(c) whether the Government has since taken any concrete and effective steps to check the misuse of social media by criminals and anti-national elements; and
(d) if so, the details in this regard?

(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.





STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA
STARRED QUESTION NO. *142 FOR 13-02-2019
REGARDING MISUSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
……..


(a) to (d): Yes, Sir. The social media platforms are intermediaries under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) had proposed to amend the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 notified under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000. The proposed amendments to the said Rules were published on MeitY website on 24.12.2018 inviting public comments by 15.01.2019. The proposed amendments were intensely debated in the electronic and print media. In order to convey the perspectives of proposed amendments, a meeting was held with legal experts and the privacy advocates on 29th December 2018. Based on the discussions, MeitY extended the deadline for submission of comments to 31.01.2019. The comments so received have also been published on MeitY’s website on 06.02.2019 inviting further comments by 14.02.2019.

Government regularly interacts with social media representatives regarding the steps to be taken to make social media safer.