Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The order issued by the Railway Ministry to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) seeking the removal of the 285 videos related to stampede at the New Delhi railway station has come under criticism.
According to Hindustan Times, the ministry sent notice to the X on 17 February with regard to the stampede happened on 15 February when 18 people were killed and dozens got injured due to massive crowd of Kumbh devotees at the railway station in the national capital.
The ministry cited “ethical norms” and the platform’s own content policy asking for action to be taken in 36 hours.
“This is not only against the ethical norms but also against the content policy of x.com itself as sharing of such video may create unwarranted law and order situation,” the ministry’s notice stated, alleging that the content “may affect the operations of Indian Railways” given the “huge rush of trains” these days.
The ministry sought to remove tweets from multiple accounts, including prominent news networks, citing concerns about “sensitive or disturbing media depicting deceased individuals”.
The notice was at least the second instance where the ministry exercised this power. An earlier notice sent to YouTube and Instagram in January targeted content containing “misleading and sensitive/provocative information” that could “create unwarranted law and order situation”. The notice listed one YouTube video, one Instagram post, and two Instagram reels. It was not clear if this notice pertaining to a specific incident.
The notice is a result of the new authority granted on December 24, when the Railways ministry empowered its executive director of information and publicity (Railway Board) to issue takedown notices directly to social media platforms under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. Previously, such requests were routed through the IT ministry’s Section 69A blocking committee.
In the notice, the ministry said that it was empowered under the section to issue takedown notices “to remove/disable access to URLs, accounts, etc. where unlawful advertisements, endorsements, promotional content, etc. are published”.
As per this section, safe harbour protection (protection from liability for third party content) is not available to an intermediary (such as a social media platform) if the company fails to remove or disable access upon being informed by the government or “its agency”.
The ministry also cited Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, as per which on receiving “actual knowledge” – either in the form of a court order or notification by an “authorised agency” – the intermediary must remove illegal content within 36 hours. It also cited Rule 7 of the IT Rules as per which an intermediary that does not follow the rules stands to lose its safe harbour.
“This is not only against the ethical norms but also against the content policy of x.com itself as sharing of such video may create unwarranted law and order situation,” the ministry’s notice stated, adding that the content “may affect the operations of Indian Railways” given the “huge rush of trains” these days.
Criticising the takedown order, US-based professor and columnist Sushant Singh said the government is trying to cover up its failure by directing to remove the videos.
“The cover-up continues. The focus is not on avoiding disasters but to avoid bad news lest it raises questions of political accountability,” said Singh.
Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said “After, failing to coverup the stampede, now Central Govt’s Railways wants X to remove all videos of Railway station. This is a very dangerous precedence”.
