Fake Bomb Threats: Central Govt Orders Social Media Platforms To Act, Or Face Action

New Delhi: Fake bomb threats issued to airlines in India reached ridiculous proportions in the past few days.

At least 275 flights and a number of airports have been at the receiving end over the last week, with many of the threats having been posted on social media platforms.

The Central government had to take a stern stand, and it has.

Pointing out that the spate of such fake bomb threats poses a threat to public order, the Centre has ordered social media platforms to act against the spread of such misinformation at the earliest.

Social media companies like X have been warned that the exemption available to them for third-party content as intermediaries under the Information Technology Act will not apply if they don’t follow their due diligence obligations or aid in committing an unlawful act.

In an advisory issued on Friday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said that air travellers and security agencies have been affected because of these hoax threats, normal operations of airlines disrupted.

“Such hoax bomb threats, while affecting a large number of citizens, also destabilise the economic security of the country. Further, 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. Such hoax bomb threats are mostly misinformation that is massively disrupting public order, operations of airlines and security of the airline travellers,” the ministry stated.

MeitY pointed out that social media platforms have an obligation to carry out due diligence under the Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000, and the Information Technology Rules (IT Rules), 2021, to remove misinformation that affects public order and security.

Directing the platforms to stop posting and sharing of such “unlawful or false” information, the government warned that exemption from liability for third-party information, data, or communication hosted by social media intermediaries will not apply “if such intermediaries do not follow the due diligence obligations as prescribed under the IT Act read with IT Rules, 2021 or abetted or aided, in the commission of the unlawful act.”

In case due diligence obligations were not followed, the platforms would be liable for action under the IT Act as well as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, warned the ministry.

The social media companies have been urged to make efforts to prevent such threats from being disseminated on their platforms and remove such content or disable access to it.

At least 275 flights have received bomb threats since a series of them started getting issued last week. Many of the threats have been posted on social media platforms, including X.