Bomb threats to airlines: Centre rebukes X for 'abetting crime'

New Delhi: Amid spate of bomb threats to airlines, the Centre on Wednesday pulled up social media platform X (formerly Twitter) through which many of these hoax messages were circulated.

Union Ministry of Electronics and IT Joint Secretary Sanket S Bhondve chaired a virtual meeting with representatives of airlines and social media platforms including X and Meta.

Expressing unhappiness over X, the official asked its representatives about the steps taken by the social media firm to check such false messages on its platform, sources said.

Pointing out that the situation amounts to "abetting crime". the official strictly told social media firms to put in place a system to control the spread of such messages, the sources said.

While representatives of social media firms assured to take action, they also said several accounts which were used to spread such messages have been blocked.

For the past few days, more than 120 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Monday said that those circulating such hoax threats will face tough action, including putting them on no-fly list.