Sena MP writes to Shah, demands social media firms be held accountable

The Shiv Sena raised the issue of social media platforms being used to target Mumbai Police in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput case, and demanded that the Centre hold these firms accountable

The Shiv Sena on Friday raised the

issue of social media platforms being used to target Mumbai Police in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput case, and demanded that the Centre hold these firms accountable.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sena spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said these platforms are being used to spread lies and hate to destabilize governments and undermine constitutional institutions.

"In the context of the suicide of an actor in Mumbai, numerous social media accounts were used to spread conspiracy theories and cast aspersions on the efficiency of the Mumbai police," Chaturvedi, a Rajya Sabha member, said in the letter.

"80,000fake andillegitimate accounts were created with specific intent to malign the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai police force especially at a time when all efforts were directed to battle COVID-19," she said.

She also mentioned a study by the University of Michigan about how conspiracy theories about Rajput's death were pushed through social media, and a report in a foreign newspaper about Facebook's operations in India.

Guidelines should be formulated to hold social media companies accountable, she said.

"When the head of Facebook, Twitter can be called by the US Congress to answer questions and are being investigated in an open forum, then why is that the Indian government is even hesitating to ask them to explain their role in our nation," she asked.