New Delhi (ILNS): A plea seeking the regulation of age for access to social media and for devising a profile verification mechanism to eliminate illicit content on social media has come before the Supreme Court. The court today issued notice.
The bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices A.S. Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, while hearing the plea through video conferencing, was informed that the cause of action of this petition arose when no satisfactory action was taken on a complaint of June 9, 2020 filed by the petitioners on cybercrime.gov.in with regard to illicit content being traded on social media.
The petition has been filed by Skand Bajpai and Abhyudaya Mishra, law students of New Law College, Bharathi Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune.
The petitioners have prayed for the institution of proper investigation and legal proceedings against the users of social media profiles who indulge in the advertisement, sale, and procurement of illicit content (CSAM, rape videos) and private graphic information and to ensure deletion of such content, along with the formulation of an efficient mechanism to deal with such content in the future.
The petitioners have sought directions to devise a mechanism for verification of these social media profiles as the multiplicity of accounts and unverified profiles promote anonymity and impersonation. It makes it grueling for the law enforcement agencies to trace a cyber offender. Verified social media profiles would encourage accountability and deter individuals from engaging themselves in offenses in the virtual world.
-India Legal Bureau