Government sends legal notices to account holder on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook who allegedly posted on their webpage inflammatory messages and morphed images related to ethnic violence in Assam.

Notices have been sent to “at least four” Twitter account holders, asking them to appear before a committee on 10 September at the office of the Computer Emergency Response Team. Details of other account holders have been asked for, to send notices.

Pavan Duggal, a cyber law expert, said the government can take action against any person who has published, transmitted or caused to be published or transmitted any such content under various provisions of the IT Act.

“A criminal case could be registered under the IT Act as well as Indian Penal Code,” he said.

Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said:

Besides providing a pervasive infrastructure for discreet communication, cyberspace is proving to be a facilitator for malevolents seeking to enlist new recruits and to purvey a distorted version of the reality.

Anonymity that the user acquires in this medium can sometimes test the capacities of even the most experienced police investigator. Police forces will have to develop skills in this area not just for locating malicious content, but also for identifying those responsible for posting it. [Mint]