Delhi High Court calls for handbook on how social media platforms share info with police

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Police to coordinate with social media platforms such as Meta and Google to compile a handbook on how the police may seek and promptly secure information available with these entities during emergencies and criminal investigations [Shabana vs. Government of NCT of Delhi & Ors.]..The Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma noted that while these social media entities were ready to furnish information to law enforcement agencies as and when required, police officers may not be fully aware of how to make such information requests. "In a large number of cases, Investigation Officers (IOs) may not be fully aware of the manner in which information can be obtained from the various platforms and sometimes precious time is lost. Accordingly, insofar as the Delhi Police is concerned, the matter may be escalated to the Commissioner of Police at the Delhi Police Headquarters (PHQ) for coordinating with the platforms and for taking steps towards preparation of a handbook that may be utilised and disseminated to all police stations, who may need urgent information from these platforms,” the Court said..The Court added that the proposed handbook could include the details of the manner in which the requests have to be made and provide the details of nodal officers appointed by social media platforms.“In case any training is required, the Commissioner of Police may also call for meeting with the platforms and hold training sessions for Police Officials, so that, in serious cases there is proper cooperation, collaboration and timely furnishing of information by the platforms to avert the commission of crime or to obtain information which may be required during the course of any investigation," the Court further observed..The Court passed the order while dealing with a habeas corpus writ petition filed by the parents of a missing boy. The Delhi Police had earlier submitted that on receiving a tip, it had written to Meta to furnish information on the missing boy’s Instagram account, phone number, location/IP address, and the IMEI of the device being used. However, Meta did not supply the information, the Court was told. The Court had, therefore, issued notice to Meta and sought its assistance. At the time, the Court also observed that there is often a time lag between the seeking of information by police and receipt of such information from social media platforms in emergencies such as in missing persons cases, or cases involving hoax bomb threats.To bridge this gap, the Court had directed all major social media platforms to furnish details of their standard operating procedure (SOP) for dealing with requests for information from law enforcement agencies..In response, Google, Meta, WhatsApp, Telegram and Reddit placed on record their SOPs for dealing with such requests, along with the timelines within which such information is generally supplied.In the November 13 order, the Court took note of the various mechanisms put in place by these entities, including the appointment of nodal officers and the kind of information made available to the police upon request. “As on today, the current status is that most of the platforms are unanimous on the position that when there are emergency requests made by Law Enforcement Agencies, the deadline of 72 hours, which is prescribed in the Rule 3(1)(j) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, is merely treated as a maximum time and in most case of emergencies, the same are dealt with and information is provided as quickly as possible,” the Court observed..The Court was also informed that the missing boy is yet to be traced, despite the State's efforts. In response, the Court has handed over the probe to the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU).The matter will be heard next on December 11..Advocates Fozia Rahman, Sikander A. Siddiqui, Aafreen, Kartikay Dixit appeared for the petitioner.Standing Counsel Sanjay Lao, with Advocate Priyam Aggarwal appeared for the Delhi government.Senior Advocate Arvind Datar with Advocates Tejas Karia and Varun Pathak, Amee Rana, Dhruv Bhatnagar, Prasidhi Agrawal, Tanuj Sharma represented Meta.Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Reddy with Advocates Swati Agarwal, Shashank Mishra, Akshi Rastogi, Shivika Mattoo appeared for WhatsApp.Senior Advocate Raj Shekhar Rao appeared for Telegram.Advocates Neel Mason, Ekta Sharma and Pragya Jain appeared for Google.Advocates Alipak Banerjee, Sreeja Sengupta and Brijesh Ujjainwal appeared for Reddit.Advocates Naveen Kumar Raheja and Anant Vijay Singh appeared for the DUISB..[Read Order]