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    Legal Action Against Fake Account On Social Media

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    Tzu Minmin
    Fake social media accounts are a growing problem that can be used to steal personal information, influence political trends, or impersonate celebrities. While social media platforms have policies against fake accounts and methods to verify authentic users, there are still millions of fake accounts globally each year. The law provides some protections through sections of the IT Act that prohibit impersonation and fraud. Recent guidelines also require platforms to have grievance redressal systems, but reforms are still needed to better protect users and hold platforms accountable for fake accounts on their sites.

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    Legal Action Against Fake Account On Social Media

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    Tzu Minmin
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    Fake social media accounts are a growing problem that can be used to steal personal information, influence political trends, or impersonate celebrities. While social media platforms have policies against fake accounts and methods to verify authentic users, there are still millions of fake accounts globally each year. The law provides some protections through sections of the IT Act that prohibit impersonation and fraud. Recent guidelines also require platforms to have grievance redressal systems, but reforms are still needed to better protect users and hold platforms accountable for fake accounts on their sites.

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    LEGAL ACTION AGAINST FAKE ACCOUNT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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    Fake social media accounts are a growing problem that can be used to steal personal information, influence political trends, or impersonate celebrities. While social media platforms have policies against fake accounts and methods to verify authentic users, there are still millions of fake accounts globally each year. The law provides some protections through sections of the IT Act that prohibit impersonation and fraud. Recent guidelines also require platforms to have grievance redressal systems, but reforms are still needed to better protect users and hold platforms accountable for fake accounts on their sites.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    44 views4 pages

    Legal Action Against Fake Account On Social Media

    Uploaded by

    Tzu Minmin
    Fake social media accounts are a growing problem that can be used to steal personal information, influence political trends, or impersonate celebrities. While social media platforms have policies against fake accounts and methods to verify authentic users, there are still millions of fake accounts globally each year. The law provides some protections through sections of the IT Act that prohibit impersonation and fraud. Recent guidelines also require platforms to have grievance redressal systems, but reforms are still needed to better protect users and hold platforms accountable for fake accounts on their sites.

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    LEGAL ACTION AGAINST FAKE ACCOUNT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

    Social Networking platforms are an extremely popular and useful communications tool in the
    digital age. Their growth has not only attracted advertisement and marketing agencies but also
    imposters who steal personal data and represent them as their own. These imposters are able to
    trick web users into divulging sensitive personal information.

    FAKE ACCOUNTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THEIR IMPACT

    A fake account is essentially an account on any social media platform where the displayed details
    are actually dishonest, or even fraudulent. Misrepresentation on fake accounts, using fake details
    mislead the general public, into disseminating inaccurate information, or collecting financial or
    personal details.

    As per the data collected in 2019 by Swedish e-commerce start-up A Good Company and analytics
    firm HypeAuditor which included the assessment of more than 1.84 million Instagram accounts
    across 82 countries, the top three markets with the highest numbers of fake accounts were the
    United States (49 million), Brazil (27 million), and India (16 million). Moreover, as per
    Facebook’s enforcement analytics report, it is estimated that about 5% (i.e. close to 90 million)
    profiles on their platform are fake.

    TYPES OF FAKE-ACCOUNTS AND WHAT THEY ARE USED FOR

    Different kinds of fake accounts can be found on social networking sites. Most fake accounts are
    made using the information provided by other users, without their knowledge. These accounts are
    usually used by imposters to attain sensitive information such as credit card details, other financial
    details, or personal information from users.

    It is reported that another set of fake accounts are created by political parties and corporations to
    influence media trends. These accounts are usually created by bots which imitate human behavior,
    in order to promote a particular ideology or product. There have been several instances wherein
    these accounts continuously use hash tags and repost content to increase their visibility and
    popularity.

    Many celebrities have also reported fake accounts that are being used in their name. Such accounts
    use the personal data and information of a celebrity to create a seemingly official account.
    Imposters use these fake accounts to cheat and defraud lay fans/supporters.

    REGULATION BY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AGAINST FAKE ACCOUNTS

    There is no specific law in place that holds social media platforms liable for the creation of fake
    accounts within their network. This is because the network only acts as an intermediary and does
    not directly create the account. The safe-harbor immunity given under Section 79 of the
    Information Technology Act, 2000, protects intermediary social media networks from liability for
    content posted thereon by third parties. Under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000
    an online portal which acts as an intermediary i.e only receives, stores, transmits or communicates
    an electronic record will not be liable for any third-party information or communication that is
    available on it. However, the provisions state that upon receiving ‘actual knowledge’ that any
    information, data or communication link residing in the portal is used to commit an unlawful act,
    then the intermediary becomes liable to take such content down. Unfortunately no clarity has been
    provided with regard to what constitutes ‘actual knowledge’. Although the Shreya Singhal[1] case
    required a ‘court order’ to be considered as actual knowledge, the Delhi HC in MySpace[2] case
    removed this need with regard to removal of content.

    The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021
    has incorporated various regulations intended to be helpful in combating the nuisance of fake
    accounts. Under these guidelines, every social media site has the responsibility to set up a
    grievance redressal mechanism wherein complaints can be lodged against any content available
    on that site. Under rule 3(2)(b) if the intermediary upon the receipt of complaint, finds that the
    impugned content is in the nature of impersonation in an electronic form, including artificially
    morphed images, then it shall take all reasonable and practicable measures to remove or disable
    access to such content which is hosted, stored, published or transmitted by it. These guidelines and
    the grievance redressal system set up under it would be supportive for users to report fake profiles.
    The guidelines also state that intermediaries are required to report cybersecurity incidents and
    share related information with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.

    An additional responsibility is placed upon significant social media intermediaries, who have
    more than 50 lakh registered users in India. These websites are required to (i) appoint an additional
    chief compliance officer who ensures that the websites are acting in compliance with the IT act
    (ii) appoint a grievance officer who resides in India and (iii) publish a monthly compliance report
    with the necessary information.

    Most platforms, within their Terms of Use, have provisions against impersonation and can take
    action when a profile is not being operated by the persons themselves. All major social media
    platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. provide an option for users to report profiles
    that are fake or participating in unlawful activities. This system does not assure that all reported
    profiles will be removed, however investigations are launched to cross-check the authenticity of
    reported profiles. Furthermore, some websites such as Facebook have set up their own verification
    and enforcement agencies with the aim of identifying and removing fake accounts.

    Social media websites are also improving their system by employing various verification methods
    that provide credibility to genuine and authenticated profiles. This allows users to differentiate
    between fake and real profiles and further allows the platform to identify potentially
    impersonating/fraudulent profiles.
    LAW GOVERNING FAKE ACCOUNTS

    Every day there are several persons who become victim to various offences committed by
    imposters. These victims have the right to report such instances as the attackers are in violation of
    various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (fraudulent impersonation is a statutory offence) and
    the Information Technology Act, 2000.

    The most relevant section for fake accounts is Sec 66D of the IT Act which states that:

    “Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats by personation,


    shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend up to three
    years and shall also be liable to a fine which may extend up to one lakh rupees”. Moreover Sec
    66C of the Act states that “Whoever, fraudulently or dishonestly make use of the electronic
    signature, password or any other unique identification feature of any other person, shall be
    punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and
    shall also be liable to fine with may extend to rupees one lakh.”

    In case of fake accounts that are used to cheat others by appropriating the personal information of
    other users without their consent or by using made-up personal details, the creator can be held
    liable under Section 416 of the IPC which deals with cheating by personation. The provision states
    that a person is said to ‘cheat by personation’ if he cheats by pretending to be some other person.
    The imposter would be held guilty whether the individual personated is a real or imaginary person.
    Under Section 468, any person who commits forgery of an electronic record for the purpose of
    cheating would also be held guilty.

    NEED FOR REFORM

    The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules,
    2021 is a welcome step towards protecting the interests of users in various social media websites.
    The guideline specifies that complaints must be acknowledged within 24 hours and disposed of
    within 15 days. However modifications need to be introduced to improve the application of
    criminal provisions to electronic offences. Moreover, social media networks need to increase their
    vigilance in detecting fake profiles and they must be held responsible to ensure authenticity of
    information available on the platform.

    [1] 2013 12 SCC 73

    [2] MANU/DE/3411/2016(Delhi HC)

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