Petition in Supreme Court seeks to regulate social media platforms

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to regulate Twitter and other social media forums through guidelines to make them accountable under criminal and civil laws until enacted by Parliament. Advocate Mahek Maheshwari has filed this petition in his personal capacity.

The petition has requested to direct the Center to make necessary guidelines in this regard till appropriate legislation is made to regulate social media so that complaints are not resolved within the time frame set by Twitter and other similar social media forums. In this case, an appeal can be made about this.

The petition states that due to lack of government control on social media forums, Twitter can act freely and unethically in its own free will and suspend/restrict the accounts of consumers that are contrary to its ideology. This petition is expected to be heard in the coming days.

The petition said that instructions should also be given to the officials in the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to consider the complaints related to social media forums. The petition alleged that Twitter has crossed all boundaries of anarchy by supporting the mocking of the country’s highest judiciary, which has the Supreme Court and all its judges.