New Delhi: The Center on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that the “slippery of social and technological progress cannot be obstructed” in the way of freedom and independence of an individual and that social media platforms should be made available to citizens. Fundamental rights should be respected and should be in conformity with the Constitution of India.
In an affidavit filed in response to a petition by a Twitter user against the suspension of his account by the micro-blogging platform, the central government said the social media platform should not shut down the account itself or suspend it completely in all cases. Needed.
The Center explained that a platform may give prior notice to the user and seek removal of specific information or material that violates its policies or applicable Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) rules and only in cases where most of the content/ If posts/tweets to one user account are illegal, the Platform may take steps to delete all information or suspend the entire account.
The government said that complete ‘de-platforming’ (removal of a user from the platform) is against the spirit of Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India, and if only some part or content is unlawful, then the platform can only provide such alleged information. may take proportionate action to remove it and may not suspend the consumer account outright.
The affidavit, filed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology through advocate Manish Mohan, said, “The platform should respect the fundamental rights of citizens and should not self-close the account or completely suspend the user account in all cases.” Needed. Deletion of complete information or user account should be a last resort and the Platform may, at all times, endeavor to protect the fundamental rights of the Users by following the principles of natural justice and providing reasonable time and opportunity to the User to explain “
