MeitY warns social media to remove hoax bomb threats or risk losing safe harbour provisions

In the last week, several airlines in India received hoax bomb threats

Days after various airlines received multiple hoax bomb threats, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on October 25, urged social media platforms to adhere to provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Rules and Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and make "reasonable efforts" to "promptly" take down such misinformation.

The ministry warned platforms if they failed to comply with the IT Rules, they would lose the safe harbour provisions under the IT Act. Under this provision, platforms are exempted from liability for third-party content published on social media platforms.

In the advisory issued, the ministry said, "Airline travellers (sic) and security agencies are being affected due to such hoax bomb threats that disrupt the normal course of operations of the Airlines. The instances of malicious acts in the form of hoax bomb threats to such airlines lead to potential threat to the public order & security of the state."

"Such hoax bomb threats while affecting a large number of citizens also destabilises the economic security of the country. Further, the scale of the 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 advisory added.

On October 25, more than 25 domestic and international flights operated by Indian carriers received bomb threats on Friday, according to sources.

In 12 days, more than 275 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received hoax bomb threats. Most of the threats were issued through social media. On Thursday, over 70 flights received bomb threats.

On October 23, the Central government pulled up microblogging site X for facilitating the dissemination of hoaxes amidst a series of bomb threats directed at airlines in the past week.

The Delhi Police have also registered eight FIRs regarding bomb threats that impacted over 90 domestic and international flights, tracing the threats to anonymous posts on X and identifying three accounts as responsible.

The advisory also said that, in accordance to the IT Rules, platforms will have to provide information on the matter to law enforcement agencies within 72 hours.

"In addition to the above, the IT Rules, 2021 obligates the intermediaries to provide information under its control or possession, or assistance to the Government agency which is lawfully authorised for investigative or protective or cyber security activities, for the purposes of verification of identity, or for the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution, of offences under any law for the time being in force, or for cyber security incidents, well within the stipulated timeframes (as soon as possible but not later than 72 hours)," it added.