The bench allowed the High Courts to continue with the hearing of the individual petitions but ordered that no final order be passed till the apex court takes a call on the transfer of petitions to it.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to make its stand clear on the question whether social media companies ought to share information of users and messages on its platforms with law enforcement agencies for crime detection purposes.
The question cropped up during the hearing of a petition filed by Facebook Inc which is facing this issue before three High Courts in the country – Bombay, Madras and Madhya Pradesh HCs. Lawyers for Facebook, WhatsApp requested the Supreme Court to transfer the petitions from the respective High Courts to itself and decide the aspect once and for all.
A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose issued notice on the petition to the Centre and posted the case for hearing on September 2. Prior to doing so, the Court heard the lawyers appearing for the social media companies as well as the Tamil Nadu government represented by Attorney General KK Venugopal.
The companies led by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal pointed out that the details of messages shared on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted and are not known event to the company. Also, this question raises issues of privacy and data sharing, that have been interpreted in past judgments of the Supreme Court. Sibal submitted that an order passed by any High Court had the effect of impacting the company globally as WhatsApp is a global product.
How It Will Help
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| Attorney General KK Venugopal appearing for Tamil Nadu argued that like the online game Blue Whale which forced participants to claim their own lives, till date the originators of the game have not been identified |
| He said on this instance Madras HC issued interim orders asking social media to share data with police, which will help them to file a case of abetment of suicide |
On the other hand, Attorney General gave the instance of the online game Blue Whale which forced several youngsters in India and elsewhere to claim their own lives. Till date, he said, that the originators of this game have not been identified. If a case of this nature comes to the police, how can abetment of suicide be fixed on the perpetrators of such games. It is for this purpose, he argued that the Madras High Court issued interim orders asking social media companies to cooperate with sharing of information with police.
The bench appreciated the fact that so far as crime detection was concerned, the order of the HC could be valid but at the same time, it noted that the petitions pending before the HCs raise a host of demands, including linkage of social media accounts with Aadhaar numbers. The bench said, "This issue should not go into different directions. But at the same time we must have a balance that prevents anybody who commits crime from hiding behind this protection available to social media platforms."
The bench allowed the High Courts to continue with the hearing of the individual petitions but ordered that no final order be passed till the apex court takes a call on the transfer of petitions to it.
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