- Facebook, on the other hand, mentioned that it can’t share the Aadhaar number with a third party as the content on its instant messaging Whatsapp was end-to-end encrypted and even they can’t access it.
- On Tuesday, A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose will hear the plea as it needs to go through the documents and transfer petition filed in the case.
Supreme Court on Monday told that Social Media users need to link their profiles with Aadhar Number in order to stop the circulation of fake, defamatory and pornographic content.
This was suggested by the Tamil Nadu government as it is facing resistance from Facebook on the ground that sharing of Biometric Unique Identity, 12-digit Aadhaar Number will violate the privacy policy of the users.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the state government, said: “The linking of social media profiles of the users with the Aadhaar was needed to check fake news, defamatory articles, pornographic materials, anti-national and terror contents in the online media.”
He also said that the claims that Whatsapp messages are end-to-end encrypted were rejected by a Professor from IIT who says that the originator of a message can be traced.
Facebook, on the other hand, mentioned that it can’t share the Aadhaar number with a third party as the content on its instant messaging Whatsapp was end-to-end encrypted and even they can’t access it.
On Tuesday, A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose will hear the plea as it needs to go through the documents and transfer petition filed in the case.
Venugopal also opposed a plea by Facebook which requested the transfer of all cases before different high courts to the supreme court in the same matter of linking of social media profiles of users.
The top law officer opposed a plea of Facebook seeking transfer of cases pending before the high courts of Madras, Bombay, and Madhya Pradesh to the apex court seeking to link of social media profiles of users with Aadhaar number.
Venugopal said that hearings in two cases before the Madras High Court were at advanced stages and 18 hearings have taken place so far.
On the other hand, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who is appearing from the side of Facebook said that whether Aadhaar can be shared with a private entity or not is the question.
He also mentioned that an ordinance is there which says that Aadhaar can be shared with a private entity only if it serves a larger public interest.
“Different High Courts are making various observations and it will be better if all these cases are transferred to the Supreme Court, as all these PILs case have more or less same prayers,” Rohatgi said.
He further said that Tamil Nadu police is saying that Aadhaar number should be used for linking user profiles.
Facebook has contended that there are four petitions including — two in Madras High Court, one in Bombay and one in Madhya Pradesh High Courts — and they contained almost similar prayers.
We all are waiting to see how this turns out with Facebook and Whatsapp under the radar.
