A petition filed by Trinamool MP has alleged that the move is meant to ‘mount surveillance on social media platforms’

The UIDAI on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court about its decision to withdraw its proposal to hire a ‘social media monitoring agency’.

The nodal agency for Aadhaar conveyed its decision to a Bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph on a petition filed by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who alleged that the move was meant to “mount surveillance on social media platforms.”

Ms. Moitra’s petition had said the UIDAI, as per its bid document, was seeking to hire a social media agency that will employ ‘online reputation management’ and ‘social listening’ tools to monitor and influence conversations related to Aadhaar on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Right of privacy

“Such action of the government violates her right of privacy. The scope of work of the social media agency, intended to be selected through the impugned request for proposal (RFP), is in the teeth of the judgment by this court in the K.S. Puttaswamy case, wherein a Bench of nine judges of this court recognised privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution,” the petition had contended.