Plea in SC against Centre's planned social media monitoring hub
Supreme Court today took a strong note of IB Ministry's decision to set up a social-media hub for monitoring online data, observing that it will be "like creating a surveillance state". A bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra issued notice to Centre and sought its response within two weeks on a plea by TMC legislator Mahua Moitra, requesting Attorney General KK Venugopal's assistance.
Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Moitra, said the government has issued request for proposal and the tender will be opened on August 20. The bench then said it is listing the matter on August 3, before the opening of tender on August 20, and AG or any law officer for the government will assist the court in the matter.
Earlier, on June 18, the SC had refused to accord urgent hearing on the plea seeking to stay a central government move to set up a 'Social Media Communication Hub' that would collect and analyse digital and social media content. Singhvi said that the government is trying to monitor the social media contents of individuals by tracking their e-mails, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
