UNSOCIABLE MEDIA

In February 2021, the centre brought sweeping reforms to the Information Technology regulatory framework in order to regulate social media. Now, it has submitted before the Delhi High Court that a user can initiate proceedings against a social media platform for suspending his/her account without prior notice

- Shashank Rai

A bunch of petitions had been filed by entities who had approached the Delhi High Court after social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, amongst others, had suspended their social media handles without any prior intimation. This follows the Union government's submission before the High Court that social media users could act against the platforms for suspension of accounts of users without providing notice to the users. "Platforms must respect the fundamental rights of the citizens and should not take down the account itself... taking down the whole information or the user account should be a last resort and the platform may at all times, endeavor to guard the users' fundamental rights by following the principles of natural justice and afford the reasonable time and opportunity to the user to explain his stand the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court on March 30.

In the case of the political satire handle, Wokeflix, in October 2021, Instagram temporarily removed a post by Wokeflix on the platform, saying it violated its guidelines. In November 2021, Instagram removed another of the handle's stories for "containing hate speech or symbols” and disabled the Instagram account of Wokeflix. On March 1, this year, Twitter suspended Wokeflix's handle "without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petition in any way".