Social media has as many disadvantages as it is useful. It has been seen many times that major riots have occurred due to misleading information spread on social media. Now the question arises that if someone does this, can the government block any such social media handle. Let us give you information related to this in this article, along with this we will also tell you what is the law related to this.
What is the law related to this
Senior advocate of Allahabad High Court, Ravi Ratan Kumar Sinha, says on this that the Central Government has the right under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000 to issue orders to any social media company to remove such content, which will protect the security of India, Sovereignty and public order may be at risk.
In fact, Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000 gives the power to the Central and State Governments to issue orders to Internet service providers, telecommunication service providers, web hosting services, search engines, online marketplaces to block such content in India. Block any social media account that posts a message that may threaten its security, sovereignty and public order.
If any platform fails to follow this rule, then that social media intermediaries can be punished with 7 years of jail and unlimited fine can also be imposed on them. However, before issuing such an order, the government has to tell the social media company in writing why it wants to block this account.
There has also been a dispute with Twitter
In fact, during the farmers’ movement in 2021, the central government had issued an order to block some Twitter accounts of the social media platform Twitter, which has now become X. However, Twitter did not do this. After this the matter reached the court.
While hearing this case in October 2022, the Karnataka High Court had said that the Central Government does not have the right to issue orders to block any social media account, unless that social media account is in accordance with Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000. Does not violate blocking rules.
In this case, lawyer Arvind Datar, who appeared on behalf of Twitter in the court, told Justice Krishna S. Dixit that unless any content material violates the blocking rules under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000, then we Cannot block that account.
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