The Indian government has issued a directive to social media platforms to remove posts containing bomb threats or risk action being taken against them.
The directive, issued by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) urged major social media platforms to comply with the country’s IT rules.
Directive to Social Media Platforms
According to the national news source India Today, the IT ministry stressed that non-compliance with existing rules could lead to the loss of safe harbour protection. The Indian Ministry stressed that platforms must act quickly and provide information to law enforcement agencies within 72 hours.
The warning by the Indian government comes as a wave of security threats continues to hamper Indian aviation operations both domestically and internationally.
The Indian government has reportedly identified some individuals behind the hoax threats. Specifics of the individuals and entities and locations has not yet been disclosed.
Bomb Threats Continue Over Weekend
Airlines received multiple bomb threats over the weekend. Major carriers Akasa Air, IndiGo and Vistara all reported the receipt of multiple alerts.
According to the Hindustan Times, at least 50 flights involving Indian air operators received security threats. Authorities recorded a fresh wave of threats on Sunday, 27 October 2024.
This continues an extended wave of bomb threats which have lingered over the past two weeks. During that period more than 350 flights have received hoax bomb threats. Authorities identified social media accounts as being responsible for the majority of the security threats. This continues the trend seen over the past fortnight.
Security officials screened all affected flights over the weekend and cleared them for continuing operations.
Further Measures Being Implemented
As well as the directive to social media platforms, the Indian civil aviation Minister also announced the consideration of measures to ban individuals issuing such threats from flying.
“We are also taking the support of international agencies, law enforcement agencies, the Intelligence Bureau to prevent these. We are planning to bring changes to two civil aviation laws,” minister K Rammohan Naidu stated on Sunday.
The ministry will announce specifics of the planned measures in the coming days.
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