Social Media giants under Madras HC scanner for reluctance to aid investigation of Cyber Crimes

The apparent non-cooperation of social media giants including Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube in aiding authorities to investigate cyber crimes has come under the scanner of the Madras High Court..A PIL initially filed with a plea to link Aadhaar with e-mail IDs and other online user accounts for easier detection of online crimes had prompted the Bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad to query what rules were in place to counter such crime..It was, however, clarified during earlier hearings that the Bench would not entertain the plea for linkage of Aadhaar, particularly given that the matter is yet to be decided by the Supreme Court..While responding to the Court’s queries, the Government informed the court that social media companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were often reluctant to share pertinent user information to carry out investigation against cyber crimes. The state of affairs was summed up in an affidavit filed by the authorities before the Court, which stated,.“… during the year 2016 to 2018, the Chennai City Police, Cyber Crime Cell had sent about 1940 requests to such online social media companies. Among which 885 requests were sent to Facebook, 101 requests were sent to Twitter, 788 requests were sent to Gmail, 155 requests were sent to You tube and 11 requests were sent to Whatsapp. Out of which, IP logs details were received for only 484 requisitions. Out of the said replies, 211 replies received were from Facebook, 1 reply from twitter, 268 replies from Gmail, 4 replies from Youtube and no reply received from Whatsapp. It is necessary to state that remaining 1456 IP requisitions were rejected by social media companies….… It is submitted that in some cases where IP logs obtained from Facebook, Google, Youtube, the same are sent to various (ISP) Internet service providers for getting user details and the same remains unanswered and pending for long period without any positive response. Apart from the above said, few companies like Go-daddy, Beam Telecom, Saudi Telecom never responded to the IP user request made from this office.“.Given the non-cooperation of social media companies and ISPs in this regard, the state informed the Court that its investigation is often grounded on open source intelligence by gathering the available information viz., photograph, personal details and friend lists of suspects..This was despite the obligations of such entities to furnish required information in cases involving cyber crimes under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the relevant rules in the The Information Technology (intermediary guidelines) Rules, 2011..In these circumstances, the Court deemed it appropriate that the PIL be enlarged to tackle the broader issue of tackling cyber crimes, including those committed on various social media platforms. Notice was therefore issued to the dominant social media companies..“On the facts and circumstances of this case, and in exercise of powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, we are of the prima facie view that the Information Technology Act, 2000 Act and rules made thereunder, have to be implemented, in letter and spirit, and therefore, decide to enlarge the scope of the writ petition. Social media like, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Whatsapp, Google from whom information is sought for investigation, Cyber Crime, Commissioner of Police, are required to be heard, as to why they should not be made as party respondents, to these writ petitions.“.Read the order: