Centre seeks 3 months to finalise norms to link Aadhaar with social media

The Central government on Monday sought three months time to finalise the new and revised social media norms to link Aadhaar with the social media accounts.

In September, the apex court had asked the Centre to file an affidavit stating the timeframe within which it would formulate guidelines in this regard. The Centre was also asked to inform the court of the existing steps in place to address the issues emanating from the misuse of social media.

The Centre, in its affidavit, apprised the state of the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 which deal with the intermediaries.

These rules provide for a redressal mechanism for the protection of the reputation and dignity of individuals and users, said the affidavit, adding that it also touches upon the issue of the purported drawbacks of the emergence of the use of social media and its misuse.

"If on one hand technology has led to economic growth and societal development, on the other hand, there has been an exponential rise in hate speech, fake news, public order, anti-national activities, defamatory postings, and other unlawful activities using Internet/Social media platforms," the affidavit stated.

The government would initiate more steps to ensure that the intermediaries are made more liable and in pursuance of this, draft Information Technology Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules, 2018 was published, it submitted.

The top court was hearing a petition filed by Facebook for transfer of petitions pending in different High Courts across the country, that demand to interlink of Aadhaar database with social media profiles for authentication of identity, to the top court.