FIR LODGED AGAINST 50 CELEBRITIES WHO WROTE LETTER TO PM MODI ON MOB LYNCHING
An FIR has been lodged in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district against 50 Bollywood celebrities who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concerns over the growing cases of mob lynching in the country. As per district police officials, the case was filed on the basis of an order by the local court. Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha had filed the complaint in the Chief Magistrate court, which after hearing the case ordered police to lodge an FIR against the celebrities. The signatories of the letter include Anurag Kashyap, Konkona Sen, director Maniratnam, Aparna Sen, Shyam Benegal and Ramchandra Guha among others.
KERALA HIGH COURT ISSUES NOTICE IN PLEA SEEKING A BAN ON TELEGRAM APP
Major concerns regarding misuse of application ‘Telegram’ due to poor governmental control over it are put to the notice of the Kerala High Court by a student, Athena Solomon, of National Law School Of Indian University (Bangalore), through Advocate Manas P Hameed.
As per the plea, Telegram App is different from other social media platforms due to the degree of anonymity enjoyed by it. The said App was originally launched in Russia and was so developed as could not be assessed by the Russian security agencies. Thus, this mode of communication was protected and kept the identity of user concealed.
A dreadful concern was highlighted by the petitioner about how the App has no governmental control or nodal officer or registered office in India, which is one of the significant reasons for the increase in crime rate via the said App.
To amplify the seriousness recent reports have been mentioned by the petitioner which involve the use of Telegram to commit the mischiefs such as child pornography, grooming children for sexual abuse, obscene videos of women being circulated, use of the app after pornography ban, to name a few.
In view of the above the petitioner seeks the Court to direct the authorities to block access to Telegram App in India and also ensure that internet-based applications in India duly comply with the Indian laws.
The Kerala High Court (HC) on October 4 directed the central government to file their response on the same.
The petition comes at a time when the Indian government has been anxiously seeking traceability on WhatsApp due to the allegations of spreading fake news and misinformation, which allegedly triggered mob lynchings in India.
SUBODH GUPTA SEEKS RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN ON THE INTERNET
A civil defamation suit for a token damage of Rs.5 crore from operator of an anonymous Instagram Account has been filed by Indian artist Subodh Gupta.
In an order dated September 18, the Delhi High Court has ordered Facebook, Google, Instagram to remove all posts, search results and contents containing defamatory content on sexual harassment allegations against Gupta.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw passed the order stating that allegations cannot be permitted to be made in public domain without being backed up by legal recourse, the same if permitted would be capable of mischief.
In December 2018,Gupta had been accused of sexual harassment by an anonymous Instagram account. Over the last hearing in September, Instagram has been asked to furnish the name of the account operator in a sealed envelope by the next hearing and also restrained the said Instagram account from posting any content related to Gupta until next hearing. Facebook appeared for the case on September 30 and undertook to take the post down and provide additional details of the account holder by next hearing.
The next hearing is scheduled for November 18.
The order contains blocking or removal of the list of URLs or web links mentioned in the order.
To give a brief history of right to be forgotten in India, it has not been formally recognised but forms a part of Draft Personal Data Protection Bill,2018. It provides for right to restrict or prevent information, but not the right to erasure.
As per the bill an adjudicating officer will decide if the following protection should be granted on the basis of sensitivity of the personal data, role of data owner in public life, scale of information sought to be restricted, etc.
The right to be forgotten has its origin in right to reputation and right to privacy. Everyone has a right to withhold their personal information from being disseminated to the public at large. With the increase in the use of internet such information stays in the web world forever, causing hardships to innocents being victimized to the false claims on the internet. Thus, this right to be forgotten could be a relief to their agony.
ACTIVIST CRIES FOUL AS POLICE GIVE CLEAN CHIT TO T-SERIES’ ‘PORN CLIPS’
As per reports, Social activist and resident of Naigaon, Swapnil Hiray, has accused police of conniving with T-Series to dispose of a case related to uploading of porn videos on the latter’s website. Earlier, Vasai-based Manikpur police had registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. In the FIR it was mentioned that in the uploaded video, minors could be seen caught in an obscene act.
Manikpur police took proper guidance from the Cyber Cell, Censor Board of India and Public Prosecutor and registered the case. However, after registering the case, T-Series reportedly removed all the content from its website, activist Hiray claimed. Senior PSI Rajendra Kamble said, “In the CDs, we didn’t find any content which is vulgar. We also took the Censor Board help to investigate in this matter. We are not hiding anything and have not misplaced any evidences of CDs.”
