NDTV : Oct 22, 2019, 01:29 PM
New rules to regulate hate speech, fake news, defamatory posts and anti-national activities on social media will be finalised by January 15, the government told the Supreme Court today. The top court also transferred all cases pending at the Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Courts, concerning a demand to link Aadhaar and sharing of decrypted data of social media profiles, to itself.Facebook and WhatsApp sought the transfer of the cases to the Supreme Court since they could have a bearing on national security.The Supreme Court said all the cases related to social media will be heard in the last week of January.The Tamil Nadu government had until now resisted the social media companies' attempt to get the cases transferred to the top court. The lawyer representing Tamil Nadu said WhatsApp and Facebook should decrypt any information that the government wants for analysis."WhatsApp and Facebook after coming to India can't say they can't decrypt information," said the lawyer, before Tamil Nadu agreed to send the cases to the Supreme Court.