On August 13, of last year, The Economic Times reported that the US Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directed social media platforms Meta, Instagram, Google, and X (FKA Twitter), to remove content or applications violating any telecom law under the Telecommunications Act,2023.
This advisory, which included reports regarding social media influencers, featured tutorials for users on changing Calling Line Identification (CLI) to display an unknown number when making calls, stating that, “technically this is tampering of telecommunication identification and called CLI spoofing.”
The telecommunications act does not allow for such tampering when it comes to any telecom law.
DoT Social Media Involvement
While the DoT typically stays out of social media regulation – overseen by the Ministry of Electronics and IT – this time, it intervened as platform content was allowing user violations of the Telecommunications Act.
A source published by Business Standard titled “DoT directs social media firms to act against content violating Telecom Act,” indicated that identification in telecom laws must not be misused or manipulated and that the institution conducting the actions should be restrained.
Telecoms law and regulations included that social networking sites have been requested to verify that they have carried out the order by February 28.
Legal Implications
The Act of telecom laws puts a lot of importance on Section 42 (3) (c) of the Communications Act of 2023, which states that tampering with telecommunications identities is an offense. Furthermore, Section 42 (3) (e) also prohibits the acquisition of subscriber identity modules or any other telecom identifiers through fraud or impersonation.
Section 42(7) points out that such violations of telecom laws as cognizable and non-bailable, regardless of what is stated in the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973.
This week alone, social media platforms violated multiple Acts, and yesterday it was the Online Safety Act regarding the safety of children on these platforms, and today, it is Telecommunications Act.
What could tomorrow of social media hold? Has it become a hub for violations, eliminating users’ safety? If governments interfere now, would social media platforms even survive? Perhaps there would be no trace of them anymore.
User safety should not be an afterthought, but the core of the social media ecosystem.
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