The Attorney-General of India KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court yesterday that the Centre was willing to change the terms of the UIDAI's proposed social media monitoring agency. AGI Venugopal was appearing for the Central government against a petition filed by Trinamool Congress leader Mohua Moitra. Moitra's petition demands the quashing of the proposed agency, arguing that the agency's planned activities amount to surveillance of citizens and violate fundamental rights to equality, life and personal liberty, and violate freedom of speech and expression. UIDAI's proposed social media agency In 2016, the UIDAI sought bids (pdf) for private contractors to set up a social media agency for itself. The contractors' tasks include developing a social media strategy for UIDAI, run promotional and influence campaigns, among other things. However, the majority of the work related to monitoring content and sentiment, and fishing out and reporting problematic content related to Aadhaar on social media. Last month, the Central government withdrew a similar tender seeking bids to establish a Social Media Communications Hub. The tender was criticized for instituting a social media surveillance apparatus. The withdrawal came after a previous petition filed by Moitra was heard in the SC. Apart from the withdrawn tender, different arms of the government have issued six other tenders since 2014, all of them seeking to keep an eye on what users were posting on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. What Moitra's petition argues This is Moitra's second such petition in the Supreme Court, and it argues that the proposed…
