Today we sent a legal notice to BECIL against a tender for procurement of fact verification and disinformation detection tools which will lead to mass surveillance of social media users. 1/n

https://internetfreedom.in/legal-notice-becil-tender-social-media-monitoring-tool/

People share information about their political views, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, mental health etc on social media. The govt should not collect, process and indefinitely retain such senstive personal information without our knowledge and consent. 2/n

Any profiling based on social media activity is particularly susceptible to misinterpretation because the use of likes, shares or hashtags may not represent endorsement. 3/n

In 2018, BECIL had sought to create a more ambitious version of this project in the form of a Social Media Communication Hub. Thankfully, the Hub was scrapped after public outrage and litigation. 4/n

https://internetfreedom.in/notice-on-the-social-media-communication-hub-saveourprivacy/ https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/centre-scraps-plan-to-set-up-social-media-hub-sc-told/articleshow/65256582.cms

The present tender should also meet the same fate but this will required sustained advocacy by citizens and civil society groups to ensure we do not sleep walk into a surveillance state. 5/n