Committee is created to suggest measures and legal framework to effectively deal with incidents of mob violence and lynching.
Why committee was formed?
- The move came after recent Supreme Court direction to central government on the issue of mob violence and lynching.
- The apex court had denounced sweeping incidents of lynching as an affront to the rule of law and called for law to deal with such horrendous acts of mobocracy.
- It had passed a series of “preventive, remedial and punitive” measures to deal with lynching and mob vigilantism.
- It had made Centre and state governments accountable for mob violence and lynching and had asked them to take steps to curb and stop dissemination of irresponsible and explosive fake messages and videos on social media platforms which incite such incidents.
Key Recommendations:
- FIR against officials : A senior government official said social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter etc. would be made accountable for not blocking malicious posts and videos when brought to their notice and an “FIR could be lodged against their country heads” for not complying with government orders and they could be prosecuted under law.
- Objectionable content:
- Timely compliance of objectionable content removal requests should be ensured.
- Some countries employ non-governmental organisations and volunteers who proactively surf the Internet.
- Special task force: Appoint an officer in each district at the level of Superintendent of Police, set up a special task force to gather intelligence, and closely monitor social media contents to prevent mob attacks on people on the suspicion of being child-lifters or cattle smugglers.
