Delhi High Court seeks SOP from social media platforms on supplying information to agencies

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked social media platforms to place before it their standard operating protocol and timelines for dealing with requests for information from law enforcement agencies.

A bench headed by Justice Prathiba M Singh observed that it is necessary that proper timelines are followed by the platforms to ensure that any delay does not impede the process of tracing out missing persons, who are sometimes even children.

Noting that in some habeas corpus petitions there is a "lag" in relation to furnishing information to the police by the platforms, the court issued notice to several social media entities, including Google, Telegram and X, earlier called Twitter.

The court passed the order while dealing with a habeas corpus by the parents of a 19-year-old boy who had allegedly been missing since January.

"The platforms shall place on the next date their standard operating protocol for dealing with requests for information from law enforcement agencies including the timelines," the bench, also comprising Justice Amit Sharma, said in a recent order.

"In order to ensure that such delay and 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 concerned officials," the court stated.

The court also asked the Delhi Police counsel to hold a meeting with the police officials and place a note on the challenges faced by them and any training that may be required.

"This court has noticed in some habeas corpus petitions, that there is a lag between the seeking of information by police and receipt of the same from various platforms. The court has, time and again, requested counsels appearing for these platforms, to enable furnishing of the information expeditiously," the court noted.

A habeas corpus petition is filed seeking direction to produce a person who is missing or illegally detained.

In this case, some information was sought by the Delhi Police from Meta after an Instagram account in relation to the missing boy came to light.

The counsel for Meta submitted that usually training programmes are conducted with law enforcement agencies with regard to the manner in which the social media platforms function, the queuing up of the request for information as well as furnishing the same.

The court observed that it is necessary that the investigating officers are "properly acclimatised" to the manner in which requests ought to be posted, how the portal is to be monitored and how the same is to be downloaded.