Centre's Big Caution To Social Media Platforms Over Fake Bomb Threats

The spate of fake bomb threats issued to airlines poses a threat to public order, the Centre has told social media platforms while ordering them to act on such misinformation at the earliest.

It has also warned the platforms that the exemption available to them for third-party content as intermediaries under the Information Technology Act will not apply if they don’t follow their due diligence obligations or aid in committing an unlawful act. 

In an advisory sent on Friday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said air travellers and security agencies have been affected because of the hoax bomb threats, which have disrupted the normal operations of airlines. 

“Such hoax bomb threats, while affecting a large number of citizens, also destabilise the economic security of the country. Further, the scale of spread of such hoax bomb threats has been observed to be dangerously unrestrained due to the availability of the option of ‘forwarding/re-sharing/ re-posting/ re-tweeting’ on the social media platforms. Such hoax bomb threats are mostly misinformation that is massively disrupting public order, operations of airlines and security of the airline travellers,” the ministry said in the advisory. 

The ministry pointed out that the platforms have an obligation to carry out due diligence under the Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000, and the Information Technology Rules (IT Rules), 2021, to remove misinformation that affects public order and security. 

It asked the platforms to stop the posting and sharing of such “unlawful or false” information and warned that the exemption from liability for third-party information, data, or communication hosted by social media intermediaries will not apply “if such intermediaries do not follow the due diligence obligations as prescribed under the IT Act read with IT Rules, 2021 or abetted or aided, in the commission of the unlawful act.”

If the due diligence obligations were not followed, the ministry said, the platforms would be liable for action under the IT Act as well as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which has replaced the Indian Penal Code.