Question : Abuses on Social Media Platforms

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state:-

(a) whether the cases of abuses on social media platforms have increased in the country during each of the last three years and the current year and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the mechanism developed by the Government to monitor such cases before they are reported for action;
(c) whether the Government has penalized social media platform operator in such cases during the said period, if so, the details thereof, social media platform operator-wise and if not, the reasons therefor; and
(d) the other steps taken by the Government to prevent misuse of social media platform in the country?

(a)and (b) : Cyber space is a complex environment of people, software, hardware and services on the Internet. With a borderless cyberspace coupled with the possibility of instant communication and anonymity, the potential for abuse of cyberspace and social media platforms is a global issue.

Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 empowers Government to block any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above. Year-wise detail of no. of URLs blocked on social media platforms are as follows :

Year No. of URLs ordered for blocking
2016 633
2017 1385
2018 2799
2019 (till June 2019) 2163

(c): ''Police'' and ''Public Order'' are State subjects as per the Constitution of India and States are primarily responsible for prevention, detection and investigation of cybercrimes through their law enforcement machinery. The Law Enforcement Agencies take legal action against the cyber-crime offenders as per the provisions of applicable laws. The data related to penalization of social media platform operator is not maintained by MeitY.

(d): Government regularly interacts with social media platforms regarding the steps to be taken to make social media safer. Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as well as Police are in regular touch with various social media platforms to effectively address the issue of removal of objectionable content
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