The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre, states, Union Territories and social media platforms Meta and X on a PIL seeking directions to restrain the police from revealing identities of accused individuals or depicting them online in a dehumanising manner.A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana asked the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and other respondents to spell out their respective stand on the PIL filed by one Hemendra Patel after senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted for the petitioner that police uploading photographs and videos of accused persons on social media could prejudice their right to fair trial.Sankaranarayanan pointed out that social media platforms’ policies did not cover it.“The only problem is how to control it because this is not a border that you can just close down,” CJI Surya Kant said while issuing notice to the respondents.The petition sought directions to states to remove forthwith from their police social media handles posts that reveal the faces or identities of accused persons or depict them in a dehumanising manner.“Direct the Respondent-States to frame appropriate guidelines regulating the use of social media platforms by their respective police organisations, particularly to prevent the upload of any such content which reveals the faces/ identities of accused persons and/or depicts them in a dehumanising manner,” the PIL submitted.The petition referred to images or videos showing the accused handcuffed, tied with ropes, beaten with sticks, made to kneel, dragged or pulled down stairs.It has also sought directions to the states to frame appropriate guidelines regulating the use of social media by police organisations, particularly to prevent the publication of such content in the future.The PIL wanted the top court to direct Meta Platforms Inc and X Corp to frame appropriate policies and user guidelines for their platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, to ensure that content revealing the identities of accused persons or depicting them being subjected to inhuman, derogatory or dehumanising treatment is not posted.The petitioner urged the top court to direct social media companies to frame appropriate policies and user guidelines for their platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to ensure that no content was posted on their platforms which revealed the identities of persons accused of an offence and/or depicted them being subjected to inhuman/derogatory/dehumanising treatmentWhere such content has already been posted, there should be a formal, transparent and structured mechanism for prompt taking down of such content upon user reporting, he said.