‘Use AI-Based Mechanisms To Identify Culprits,’ Centre Pulls Up ‘X’ Over Flight Bomb Threats

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Wednesday blasted social media platform X through which most of the bomb hoax threats were circulated in the past week.

A virtual meeting involving several airline officials and various social media platforms was held on Tuesday evening. Air India and Vistara representatives participated in the meeting, chaired by Joint Secretary Sanket S Bhondve.

It was suggested that social media platforms, including X, use Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based mechanism to block any accounts that send out bulk messages/posts about bombs.

Top officials of social media platforms were also told to get cracking unilaterally rather than wait for the security grid to flag off an account.

Notably, in little over a week, more than 170 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received bomb threats.

Meanwhile, the government is planning legislative actions to deal with bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators on the no-fly list.

Amendments are being proposed to The Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act (SUASCA), 1982, whereby the perpetrators could be arrested and a probe can be initiated without a court order for offences when an aircraft is on the ground.

Also, changes are being planned to aircraft security rules to ensure stringent punishment for perpetrators of bomb threats to flights.

The Delhi Police have registered eight separate First Information Reports (FIR)s in connection with bomb threats to more than 90 domestic and international flights over the past eight days. The affected flights include services from Akasa, Air India, IndiGo and Vistara, operating from Delhi to various domestic and international destinations, officials told news agency PTI, adding the investigation is underway.

According to a senior police officer, the threats messages were received through anonymous posts on X which were later suspended by the authorities, News18 reported. The officer said three accounts on social media platform X have been found involved in posting threat messages to fights. The first case was registered on October 16 following a bomb threat received via X, targeting a Bengaluru-bound Akasa Air flight. The aircraft, carrying over 180 passengers, was forced to return to the national capital.

The police wrote to social media platform X the next day seeking details of the accounts that posted threatening messages but the force was not able to get the details of the user’s ID or domain. “It was suspected that the handler used VPN (Virtual private network) or dark web browser to set up the accounts on X and then posted the messages from more than one account,” the officer told PTI.

Meanwhile, various teams of the Delhi Police’s cyber cell are keeping an eye on the activities on X and other social media platforms regarding the ongoing threats to flights.