The Supreme Court on Monday gave a week’s time to a petitioner to study the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules of 2021 on his plea seeking action on ‘Islamophobic content’ in Twitter.Petitioner Advocate Khaja Aijazuddin prayed for guidelines for media companies against posting content to hurt religious sentiments.He also sought a direction to CBI or NIA probe against Twitter, and its users involved in putting out “inflammatory posts” after Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin last year which was purportedly dubbed as one of the reasons for the spread of COVID-19.
A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana told the petitioner, “This issue was forgotten…why do you want to rake up these issues again? Several other petitions are pending in this court.”During the virtual hearing, the bench also asked the lawyer to approach the Centre concerning the direction for framing guidelines under the Information Technology Act against spreading of “hate messages against any religious community including Islamophobic posts on various social media platforms”.“Have you examined the latest IT Rules,” the bench asked Aijazuddin.As the lawyer started reading the new IT Rules, the Court said it is posting the matter after a week and in the meantime, the petitioner may peruse the rules and come back prepared.
