The past few days have seen several of India’s largest airlines receiving an alarming number of hoax bomb threats. These threats, which have numbered over 100 in a week, have triggered the authorities to activate emergency protocols to ensure passenger safety. The Indian government though, has now publicly criticized X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – for not doing enough to hinder the multitude of hoax bomb threats, considering most have originated from accounts on X.
The past week has seen an alarming increase in bomb threats being issued to airlines operating from Delhi – in fact, in the past eight days alone, more than 150 flights have received fake threats, and pilots have preferred to land the planes before reaching their destinations. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in widespread disruption of flights, including those from Akasa, Air India, IndiGo and Vistara. The first bomb threat had been issued last week, on October 16, and was meant for an Akasa Air flight that was bound for Bengaluru. Since then, the threatened flights have been diverted in response to these threats, which has lead to cascading delays.
Government says X, and other social media platforms, are responsible for managing the content disseminated through their respective platforms. The Indian government’s criticism is not without merit, especially since social media companies have a responsibility to monitor and regulate the content that flows through their platforms. This holds true for content that can incite public panic (like the bomb threats), and from the looks of it, X’s tools for content moderation has not succeeded in this regard.
Most of these bomb threats came from anonymous accounts on X (which were suspended by the authorities later on). Now, officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) accused the Elon Musk-owned platform of “abetting crime,” after a virtual meeting on the matter. The meeting was chaired by Joint Secretary Sanket S Bhondve and involved airline representatives. “The platform’s role amounts to abetting crime,” Bhondve said.
For now, the Delhi Police is looking into the matter and has already registered eight cases linked to the incidents. The impacted accounts on X are @adamlanza111, @psychotichuman, and @schizobomer777, and have been noted to have used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and dark web browsers to cover their tracks. Evidently, they have succeeded in this regard, since the police have been unable to trace the user IDs associated with these accounts so far.
For now, the authorities are taking steps to deal with the issue. While cybersecurity agencies are working to suspend or block nearly additional ten social media handles that are believed to have links with the threats, the Indian government is mulling over introducing legislative action to deal with the situation. The airport authorities themselves are focussing on security, including additional CCTV cameras and stricter checks at security checkpoints.
“We are trying to make amendments and the legal team has worked on it… We need consultations with other ministries also… we are definitively pushing forward to have changes in the Act also so that it addresses offences that happen when the flight is on the ground and also make it cognizable offence,” K Rammohan Naidu, Civil Aviation Minister, commented on the matter. It is evident that those who will be found guilty of issuing hoax bomb threats will face severe consequences. This includes being placed on a no-fly list (something that would hinder their ability to board flights in the future).
