Hoax bomb threats: IT Ministry issues advisory warning to social media platforms

The advisory comes on the heels of over 100 instances of hoax threats on flights operating from India

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Friday (October 26, 2024) informed social media companies that it was their duty to curb threats to flights operating from India. “[T]he 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,” the Ministry said in its advisory.

Earlier this week, Ministry officials reportedly met with social media platforms, with an official criticising X, formerly Twitter, in particular for “abetting” these threats. The social media company said in a statement later that it was working to prevent these threats on its platform. 

These threats, which are ongoing and have so far disrupted over 100 flights, leading many domestic and international flights to be diverted or delayed, have strained the aviation sector, which is otherwise gearing up for a busy festival season. 

The advisory doubles down on the Ministry’s developing strategy for regulating social media companies: insisting that existing legal provisions are sufficient to force platforms to act. In this advisory, for instance, the Ministry wrote that “social media intermediaries 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.”

This approach was also reflected earlier this year, when deepfake videos of celebrities such as Rashmika Mandanna spread widely. In that case, after initially mulling amendments to tackle that issue, the Ministry chose instead to leverage a broader interpretation of the IT Rules, 2021. That advisory cited Rule 3(1)(b), which required social media platforms to prevent any post that “impersonates another person”. 

The consequences for social media platforms if they find themselves noncompliant with the IT Rules are that they lose protection against intermediary liability. This would enable them to be sued as publishers of such posts, as opposed to neutral platforms. In Friday’s advisory, the Ministry said that platforms that do not perform the “due diligence” in this view of the law could face legal action under the IT Act, and under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. 

Published - October 26, 2024 07:00 pm IST