Supreme Court issues notice to the central government on a plea by Facebook to transfer petitions related to Aadhaar-social media linking to the apex court. The cases are pending before the high courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea of Facebook, Inc. on the transfer of petitions in connection to the demands of linking of Aadhaar with users’ social media accounts, pending before different high courts, various news reports have suggested. A notice has been issued to the Centre, Google, YouTube, Twitter and others by the top court, seeking their response by September 13, News 18 has reported.
The Tamil Nadu government has said that linking social media accounts of users with their Aadhaar numbers can help keep a check on circulation of fake and defamatory content, The Indian Express reported. The state’s suggestion is being resisted by Facebook, Inc. on grounds that sharing Aadhaar number would result in violation of users’ privacy policy.
Last year, Antony Clement Rubin filed a petition in the Madras High Court asking for mandatory interlinking of the Aadhaar database with social media accounts to enable authentication of identity, The Indian Express added. While the Public Interest Litigation will continue to be heard in the Madras High Court, the Supreme Court has directed the high court to not pass any final orders. The case is likely to affect WhatsApp, which is the encrypted cross-platform messaging platform owned by Facebook.
