The government is looking at ways to curb trolls on social media platforms such as Twitter , including mandatory verification of accounts by linking them to mobile phone numbers or official IDs, senior officials said. This will apply both to existing as well as new users.“The general perception is that I can remain anonymous in the internet space and say and do things without any fear,” an official told ET. “However, we need to maintain the balance between an individual’s need for privacy while ensuring we don’t encourage negative things on the internet.”Trolls and propagators of fake news operate with impunity because of their anonymity.“(There is need for) Some sort of mandatory verification, such as linking accounts to mobile phones and hence verification through a one-time password, like Twitter is already offering to users, or linking it to Aadhaar, the passport or any new foolproof methodology — (it’s) completely up to the intermediary (to decide),” said a second official.A Twitter account can be opened with a mobile phone number or an email ID. But fake email IDs can be set up to open an account, which means it’s not an infallible verification mechanism, the person said.The government wants to balance the need to uphold privacy while ensuring accountability.“This doesn’t mean my name or picture has to necessarily be linked to my account,” said one of the persons. “These details needn’t pop up each time with my account, but there should be some way for law enforcement agencies or at least for the platform to verify that I am who I claim to be.” To safeguard privacy, the data will stay with the intermediary, and law enforcement agencies will seek account details only when a cybercrime takes place or if there is a complaint of harassment.The officials said account verification won’t be part of the intermediary guidelines that the government aims to issue later this year. These guidelines seek to tighten accountability rules for social media apps through proposed measures such as penalties and jail terms for company executives for violations, ET had reprted last month.The guidelines are likely to include traceability of messages to pinpoint their origin, and securing consent of users before they are added to chat groups. WhatsApp introduced a new privacy feature on Wednesday that will require a user’s assent before he is added to a chat group — a step that aligns with the latter requirement. Mandatory verification will help check unacceptable behaviour and “deter needless trolling”, said the first official.Asked whether Twitter would be open to following a mandatory verification process for all its users, the company referred ET to its blogpost which said its public verification process was currently closed.“With the upcoming elections , we are working with Indian political parties to verify candidates, elected officials, and relevant party officials whose accounts will be active in the public conversation,” Twitter said. “To be clear, the parties themselves select the accounts for verification and then we review these accounts to ensure they meet our verification standards.” Twitter said the idea was to verify the accounts to empower a healthy engagement during elections and ensure that public figures are indeed who they claim to be.