NEW DELHI: Delhi high court has asked social media platforms to furnish their standard operating protocols (SOP) and timelines for dealing with requests for information from law-enforcement agencies. Dealing with a habeas corpus plea filed by the parents of a 19-year-old student allegedly missing since Jan, a bench of Justices Pratibha M Singh and Amit Sharma underlined that it was necessary for proper timelines to be followed by the platforms.
This was to ensure that any delay does not affect the process of tracing missing persons who are sometimes even children, it said.
The bench noted that hearings in other habeas corpus petitions earlier had revealed “lags” in furnishing information to the police by these platforms. The court then issued notices to several social media entities like Google, Telegram and X (formerly Twitter).
“In order to ensure that such lag does not impede the process of tracing out missing persons, who are sometimes even children and minors, it is necessary that proper timelines ought to be adhered to by the concerned online platforms and their officials,” the court said. The HC also asked Delhi police to place a note outlining challenges faced by them in the process and mentioning if they required any specific training. “The court has time and again requested counsel appearing for these platforms to enable furnishing of information expeditiously,” the bench observed.
In this case, some information was sought by Delhi police from Meta after an Instagram account in relation to the missing boy came to light. The counsel for Meta said some training programmes were usually conducted with law-enforcement agencies. These focus on how social media platforms function, how requests for information from law-enforcement agencies “queue up” and how they are eventually furnished.