India to take tough action on misuse of social media

New Delhi - Union Law Minister warns users over spread fake news and violence.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that the government respects social media for empowering common people but action will be taken if it is misused to spread fake news and violence.

“We respect social media a lot, it has empowered common people. Social media has a big role in the Digital India program. However, if social media is misused to spread fake news, violence then action will be taken,” said Prasad while addressing the Rajya Sabha.

In response to the “legal requests” from the Central government, Twitter on Wednesday informed that it has taken multiple enforcement actions - including permanent suspension of over 500 accounts for clear violations of Twitter’s rules.

However, the Central government has also conveyed to Twitter officials that the manner in which the social media giant officially allows fake, unverified, and automated bot accounts to be operated on its platform, raises doubts about its commitment to transparency and healthy conversation on the platform.