India, March 4 -- Social media posts should not be removed without a response from the individuals who published them, and only when these people can't be identified can a notice for removal be served solely to the intermediary (the social media platform), the Supreme Court observed on Monday.

While this is a preliminary view, and more in the nature of an observation, it does provide some hope to individuals who believe their content is being unfairly censored.

A bench of Justices Bhushan R Gavai and AG Masih indicated a preliminary view that when an identifiable person is involved, a notice must be issued to them before blocking the content, as it heard a petition filed by the Software Freedom Law Center India (SFLC), represented by se...