New Delhi, Aug 3: The central government has withdrawn its contentious plan to create a social media hub, which intended to monitor the malicious activities online. The withdrawal came weeks after the Supreme Court, while hearing a plea filed by Trinamool Congress MLA Mahua Moitra, said the move sounds akin to creating a "surveillance state".

Appearing on behalf of the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal told the apex court that the government has rescinded its plan to create a social hub. The move would be further reviewed, he told the top court bench.

In May this year, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had disclosed its plans to create the social media hub, which would monitor the activities online to detect fraudulent, anarchist and anti-national elements.

Moitra, who represents the Karumpur constituency in the West Bengal assembly, moved the apex court with a PIL, claiming that the proposed social media hub will be violative of Article 19(1)(a), which promises the Right to Freedom and Expression.

"Specific capabilities mentioned include live search, monitoring, collecting, indexing and storage of personal data including location-based data and meta-data. The ability to monitor individual social media user/account is a specific mandate being given to the service provider," the PIL said.

While hearing the petition in May, a bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices DY Chandrachud and AM Khanwilkar, marked strong apprehensions. "Tapping of citizens’ WhatsApp messages by the government will be like creating a surveillance state," Justice Chandrachud had said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 03, 2018 03:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).