No Aadhaar-social media link plan
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The government has no proposal to link Aadhaar with social media accounts of individuals, Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad informed Parliament on Wednesday.
“There is no such proposal with government for linking Aadhaar with social media accounts of individuals,” the Minister said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. He was responding to a question on whether the government proposed to enact a law for linking Aadhaar with the social media accounts of individuals.
Mr. Prasad said that as a matter of policy and by design, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) precluded itself from aggregating information arising from the use of Aadhaar, tracking and profiling individuals.
On a question about the government ordering removal of objectionable content posted on social media, the Minister said that in the current year (till October 31, 2019), 3,433 URLs were blocked on social media platforms. This is an increase from the 2,799 blocked in 2018, 1,385 in 2017 and 633 blocked in 2016.
“Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, empowers Government to block any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above,” Mr. Prasad said.
(With PTI inputs)
Source www.thehindu.com