Fake news menace: Supreme Court refuses to interfere with PIL aimed at regulating misinformation on social media

The Supreme Court has refused to hear a PIL filed by a lawyer, Anuja Kapur, which sought guidelines from the Indian government to frame rules aimed at stopping the circulation and publication of fake news. As per ANI, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi decided to ignore the public interest litigation (PIL) for now, focussing its time on another PIL, which sought action against political parties if their spokespersons and representatives delivered a speech and made remarks in media pertaining to religion or caste. [caption id=“attachment_5078981” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Representational image.[/caption] Kapur’s petition had been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction from the Central government to frame necessary guidelines for checking the spread of fake news by elaborating on aspects such as accountability, liability and responsibility.

Supreme Court today refused to interfere in a PIL filed by lawyer, Anuja Kapur, seeking directions or guidelines to the Union of India to frame rules to stop circulation and publication of fake news on social media platforms and other networking sites. pic.twitter.com/n7oEU65pVK

— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2019

In a 127-page petition filed by Kapur, she also sought a direction from the Centre to constitute a committee responsible for curbing fake news. Examples of several fake news campaigns in the week following the Pulwama attacks, across social media platforms, were also shared in the petition. “There are no accountabilities, liabilities and responsibilities to restrict or counter restrict fake news by organising press-conferences or putting it on the concerned official website by various concerned authorities for the general public to access the authenticated news,” Kapur claimed in her petition. With inputs from ANI