Attorney-General informs Supreme Court of Centre's decision to withdraw its proposal to set up ‘Social Media Communication Hub’

New Delhi: In a U-turn, the Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it was withdrawing its notification proposing to create a social media hub, which some have alleged could become a tool to monitor online activities of citizens. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submission of Attorney-General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, that the impugned notification was being withdrawn, and disposed off petitions challenging it. [caption id=“attachment_4885371” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of KK Venugopal. Wikipedia Commons[/caption] Venugopal told the bench, comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, the social media policy would be reviewed completely by the government. The bench was hearing a petition filed by TMC MLA Mahua Moitra alleging that the Centre’s social media hub policy was to be used as a tool to monitor social media activities of the citizens and has sought quashing of the same. The apex court, while agreeing to hear the plea on 13 July, had asked the government whether its move to create such a hub was to tap people’s WhatsApp messages, and observed that it will be like creating a “surveillance state”.