'X abetting crime': Indian govt blasts social media platforms over hoax flight bomb threats

In the wake of more than a hundred hoax flight bomb threats, Indian government officials held a virtual meeting with the representatives of social media platforms such as X and Meta and airlines to discuss the issue.

According to media reports, in the meeting Union Ministry of Electronics and IT blasted X for the circulation of many of these hoax threats on its social media platform.

The virtual meeting was chaired by Joint Secretary Sanket S Bhondve and the officials said that the situation amounts to "X abetting crime" while asking the representative what steps they have taken to stop control the spread of such rumours.

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X was pulled up by the government after Delhi Police was not able to get the ID of the users or domain of some accounts which were found to be posting threat messages to flights.

Delhi police take action against fake bomb threats

Eight FIRs were filed by the Delhi Police in connection with bomb threats and the accounts from which these messages were circulated were later suspended by the authorities.

According to the officer, three accounts on 'X' - @adamlanza111, @psychotichuman and @schizobomer777 - were found sharing these threat messages.

"As of now, we have registered eight separate cases in response to threats to more than 90 domestic or international flights operating from Delhi," said a Delhi Police official, while speaking to news agency PTI.

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On October 16, the first case was registered after they received a bomb threat for a Bengaluru-bound Akasa Air flight through X.

"It was suspected that the handler used VPN (Virtual private network) or dark web browser to set up the accounts on X and then posted the messages from more than one account," said the officer.

The government has been mulling some legislative actions to handle these bomb threats which includes placing the accused on the no-fly list.

In the last few days, more than 120 flights have received bomb threats which has caused much chaos for the airlines and the passengers.

(With inputs from agencies)