Amid rising hoax bomb threats to Indian airlines, Centre issues advisory to social media companies
advisory to social media companies such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta, in the face of increasing hoax bomb threats to Indian airlines, reported TOI. The advisory calls for these platforms to make «reasonable efforts to disallow such malicious acts including hoax bomb threats from being disseminated on their platforms.»
«The scale of spread of such hoax bomb threats has been observed to be dangerously unrestrained due to the availability of the option of 'forwarding/re-sharing/re-posting/re-tweeting' on the social media platforms,» the Ministry of Electronics and IT highlighted on Friday. These hoax threats primarily consist of misinformation that significantly disrupts public order, airline operations, and the security of travellers.
According to the TOI report, social media intermediaries are required to «observe their due diligence obligations that include the prompt removal or disabling access to such unlawful information specified under the IT Rules, 2021, including hoax bomb threats, well within the strict timelines as prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021.»
Additionally, beyond simply removing or disabling access to this misinformation, intermediaries are also subject to further obligations under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 («BNSS»), which mandates them to report certain offences committed by users of their platform. This includes any actions intended to threaten or likely to threaten India's unity, integrity, sovereignty, security, or economic security.
«Multiple hoax bomb threats have
