IT Minister tells social media firms to prevent abuse

New Delhi, March 12 (IANS) In a stern message to social media platforms, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday that these platforms will have to respect the sovereignty and constitutional norms of privacy laid down by the Supreme Court.

"Abuse of these platforms will not be tolerated in election time. I believe in the wisdom and maturity of the people of India. They are mature enough to decide what is right and what is wrong," the Minister said at the "Digital India Summit 2019" organised by Times Network here.

The country, he said, will not compromise on the freedom to access Internet and data imperialism by anyone.

At the rate at which the country's digital economy was growing, India could be a $3 trillion economy in the next four to five years, Prasad emphasised.

"Average data usage per month has grown from 89 megabytes in 2014 to 5 gigabytes in 2018. The digital appetite of Indians has to appreciated," he said, adding that the country offers the cheapest data rates in the world.

Prasad said the number of mobile phone factories had grown from two in 2014 to 127 now.

"India is now the second biggest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, employing 5-6 lakh people. Noida and Greater Noida area alone have 94 mobile factories," he said, adding that the country would push the "Make in India" initiative if the NDA comes back to power.

"We will come back with a thumping majority," he added.

Dismissing allegations of Aadhaar data leaks, Prasad said the Aadhaar data was "billion per cent safe".