In the wake of a wave of bomb threats to several Indian airlines, the Union government on Saturday issued an advisory for social media platforms, urging them to make “reasonable efforts” to prevent such malicious acts.
At least 250 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats over the last 10 days, leading to several route diversions and chaos at airports. Many of these threat messages were sent from a specific X handle, making it difficult for the security agencies to trace the source of the message.
In a clear warning, the government noted that intermediaries, including social media sites, have a due diligence obligation under the Information Technology Act 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 to promptly remove such misinformation that affects public order and security of the state.
“As part of such due diligence obligations, it is the responsibility of concerned intermediaries including social media intermediaries to promptly take necessary action under the IT Rules, 2021 by not allowing any user to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any unlawful or false information,” said the advisory issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The advisory further noted that the exemption from liability for any third party information made available by social media intermediaries as provided under Section 79 of the IT Act will not apply if these platforms do not follow their due diligence obligations.
Those who fail to observe the due diligence obligations will be liable for consequential action as provided under any law including the IT Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the ministry said.
“The intermediaries including social media intermediaries must observe their due diligence obligations that include the prompt removal or disabling access to such unlawful information specified under the IT Rules, 2021, including hoax bomb threats, well within the strict timelines,” it added.
The ministry noted that the hoax bomb threats to flights are affecting a large number of citizens besides destabilising the economic security of the country.
Earlier this week, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the government plans to take legislative actions to deal with instances of bomb threats to airlines, including placing perpetrators of such threats on the no-fly list.