New Social Media Rules Announced by the Government of India

In a bid to hold the various social media platforms accountable for their actions, the Government has released guidelines for intermediary platforms on Thursday. These guidelines, under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, have been issued to control the misuse of social media where crores of citizens are active users.

The Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a press conference said, “Social media is welcome to do business in India, they have done exceedingly well, they have done good business, they have empowered ordinary Indians. The government welcomes criticism and the right to dissent….It is important that social media users running into crores should be given a platform for raising their grievance to raise complaints about abuse of social media.”

What Are the New Rules for Social Media and OTT Platforms?

While the social media laws are going to come into effect in three months as it will help in the improvement of their mechanism, others will come into play on the day the rules are notified.

To simplify what the guidelines entail, we have put together six points that encapsulate the new rules:

1. It is mandatory for platforms such as WhatsApp to help the government in getting a hold of the ‘originator’ of messages which are harmful and contain illegal information.
2. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will have to remove any content which contains illegal information within 36 hours after they’ve been notified about the same. Others will have to acknowledge it in the given time frame but can resolve the issue within 15 days.

They will also have to provide information related to verification of identity, and this has to be done within 72 hours to legally authorized agencies.

3. OTT platforms will have to divide their content into five categories based on age. These five categories are:

– U (Universal)

7+ (Above 7 years of age)

13+ (Above 13 years of age)

16+ (Above 16 years of age)

A (Adult)

In accordance with these categories, parental locks and age verification locks will be implemented.

4. All the content which the different OTTs generate needs to be mindful of the country’s sovereignty and their relationship with other countries. OTT content will have to go through a three-level grievance redressal mechanism. These are:

Self-regulation by the platform

Self-regulatory body

Government-generated oversight mechanism.

A government-appointed officer who is a part of the oversight committee can also block access to any content they deem inappropriate.

5. The news which is being broadcasted on OTT will have to keep the guidelines put forth by the Press Council of India as well as the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act in mind, and create content accordingly.
6. All the major social media platforms will have to assign three positions: i) Chief Compliance Officer, ii) Nodal Contact Person, and iii) Resident Grievance Officer.

These officials will be required to put together a compliance report every month which will comprise all the details of the complaints lodged and what action was then taken. These positions will have to be assigned within three months after the rules have been published.

Further, the nodal contact person will need to be in contact with the law enforcement agencies 24×7.

Reasons Behind the Introduction of These Guidelines

To Make Sure Due Diligence Is Being Done by Social Media Platforms

In case any social media platform refuses to do its due diligence, safe harbor provisions will no longer apply to them. This means that they will now be held liable for the content posted on their platforms by users if they don’t do their due diligence.

These provisions which have been defined under the Section 79 of the IT Act give them ‘safe harbor’ by not holding them accountable and providing them with immunity from legal prosecution for any content which is posted on their respective platforms.

Ensure the Safety of the Citizens, Especially Women

The various platforms will have to disable access to content that contains explicit pictures or videos within 24 hours after complaints are filed about the same. These complaints can be filed by the person or someone else on their behalf.

Establish a Grievance Redressal Mechanism

To empower users who are active on the various platforms, a grievance redressal mechanism that is aimed at promptly resolving consumer complaints is being introduced. The Grievance Officer will be responsible for the acknowledgement of the complaint within 24 hours and ensuring that it gets resolved within 15 days after it is received.

Even though the government has been working on these rules since 2018, the recent dethroning of Trump as well as the friction between the IT ministry and Twitter over the content being posted – concerning the farmers’ protests – speeded up the process.