Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the hon. Member for this question. Indeed, the phenomenon of false information and the proliferation of fake profiles often accompanied by anonymous postings is creating significant disruption on social media and our society at large. This concern has been substantiated by the high number of cases reported to the Cyber Crime Unit between 2014 and 2024 as also indicated by the hon. Prime Minister in his reply to PQ B/715. In fact, our legal framework, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, remains outdated. While the legal framework for many other countries like the UK, the European Union, France, Germany have actually been updated, our legal framework as of date does not define what really online harm is. Here, we are talking about the online harms. Nevertheless, our laws provide for some parameters that deter unacceptable or unlawful online behaviour. I would like to seize this opportunity also to inform the House and the population at large that the Cyber Security and Cyber Crime Act defines a fake profile as an untrue online representation that is probably non-existent. Under the same law, Section 16 criminalises the use of fake profile to cause harm, yet online harms are not defined, with the penalties running up to Rs1 million or 20 years of penal servitude.

65 Therefore, Section 23 mandates even the administrators of those social media platforms or groups to moderate and control undesirable online contents, which can be deceptive or inaccurate, that have been posted with an intent to defame or threaten, or abuse, or mislead the public. It is important to know that it applies even to private WhatsApp groups as far as a telecommunication device is being used in that communication process. The ICT Act at Section 46 prohibits knowingly sending false or fraudulent messages. Coming to the substantive part of the answer, over and above the measures mentioned by the hon. Prime Minister in his reply, the measures that we have put up are – (i) Under enhanced reporting and monitoring mechanism run by the CERT-MU we have upgraded MAUCORS to MAUCORS+. It now allows people or agreed parties to provide more information so that the work of the police can get easier and so that we also able to undertake a lot of analytic work on that to define the patterns. (ii) Secondly, there is the establishment of a multistakeholder committee at the level of my Ministry which is attended also by the Police IT Unit and the Cybercrime Unit to monitor and follow up on incidents. (iii) We are continuing with our sensitisation campaigns, targeting students, educators and the general public. This one has started in January and it is ongoing, and (iv) there are also security alerts when the CERT-MU identifies a message that can be of seriously aggravating nature. (v) My Ministry has also made a request to the police to operate and conduct effective cyber platforms through automated tools which are actually AI-powered on a 24/7 basis, and lastly, (vi) We are also exploring mutual legal assistance to bring accused who are hiding behind barriers, they are offshore and from there, they are actually disturbing our social construct in the country. So, we are exploring MLA to mutual legal assistance, and finally, (vii) We have also decided to establish the Cyber Resilience and Cybersecurity Unit which will look into this matter more deeply. As for the second part of the question, the right to freedom to expression is guaranteed under Section 12(1) of the Constitution and all actions that we are taking will be within

66 conformity of this provision. But Section 12(2) also provides for reasonable limitations for the freedoms of expression which are necessary to protect public order, security and rights of others. To conclude, we are looking at robust legal sanctions and ongoing legislative reforms in coordination with the office of the Attorney General. There is enhanced reporting, investigation and law enforcement, there are public awareness and campaigns…

In a question you do not have to conclude. You just answer the question. You have already said all these?

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, with these measures aim to safeguard our digital space and its integrity. Thank you.

Any supplementary question?

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding this bone of contention, I would like to know whose responsibility it would be to handle the complaints reported by complainants? I would like to know exactly who is the watchdog when there are problems here.

Can you answer this question?

Thank you. The CERT-MU is an agent that routes complaint to the police. So, ultimately it is the police who has the responsibility to carry out the investigations. Thank you.

Yes, one supplementary question!

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, for many users social media is a licence to defame. I understand that…

Put your question, please!

Yes, I must put the context because I have been informed that there is a problem with cooperation with the police from the social media platform owners. Will the hon. Minister consider coming up with measures to force these platforms to cooperate with the police when there are investigations? Thank you.

I would not say that there are problems per say. We are putting in all our efforts together with the police to have the social media platform service providers to actually comply to the provisions of our local legislations and the work that we are doing together with the office of Attorney General is going into the direction as well. Thank you.

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The hon. Third Member for Pamplemousses and Triolet! ARSENAL – MALAKOFF ROAD – DRAIN WORKS – DELAY & COMPLETION