The new rules were announced in February which requires large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer. IT Ministry sources said that appointment of a grievance officer would be a key requirement from day one of rules coming into effect, given the importance of public interface for complaints, and the need for an acknowledgement system for requests.
Non-compliance with rules would result in these social media companies losing the intermediary status that provides them exemptions from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them.
On February 25, 2021, the government had announced tighter regulations for social media firms, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.
According to sources close to the development, provisions around voluntary verification, 24-hour timeline to remove content flagged for nudity etc and set up a process and time-bound grievance redressal mechanism has been put in place, while meeting requirements like generation of monthly compliance reports and appointment of the chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer is underway.
The government had set 50 lakh registered users as the threshold for defining ‘significant social media intermediary’, meaning that large players like Twitter, Facebook and Google would have to comply with additional norms. Announcing the guidelines in February, it had said the new rules take effect immediately, while significant social media providers (based on a number of users) will get three months before they need to start complying. The three-month time period meant compliance by May 25, 2021.
SOCIAL MEDIA NORMS TO BE ADMINISTERED BY MINISTRY OF IT
1. Intermediaries will have to remove content containing nudity, sexual act or impersonation including morphed images, within 24 hours of receipt of complaints.
2. Intermediaries will have to appoint a grievance officer to deal with complaints, and this official has to acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days of receiving the complaint.
3. An intermediary, after receiving court or government order, should not host or publish any information that is prohibited in relation to the interest of the sovereignty of India and public order.
4. Two categories of social media intermediaries have been classified on the basis of user number – social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries.
5. User threshold for determining significant social media intermediaries to be announced soon.
6. Additional due diligence mandated for significant social media intermediaries.
7. Significant social media intermediaries will have to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person and a resident grievance officer. All three officials will have to reside in India.
8. Significant social media intermediaries to publish a monthly compliance report on complaints received, action taken, and content removed proactively.
9. Significant social media intermediary will need to have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app or both.
10. Messaging platforms asked to enable identification of the “first originator” of the information that undermines the sovereignty of India, security of the state, or public order. The intermediary will not be required to disclose the content of the message.
11. Users who want to get their accounts verified voluntarily should be provided the mechanism to do so.
12. In case a social media platform removes content on its own, it will have to provide prior intimation for the same to the user and explain reasons for such action. Users to be given opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary.
13. The rules will come in effect from the date of their publication in the gazette, except for the additional due diligence for significant social media intermediaries that will come in effect 3 months after publication of the rules. 14. In case due diligence is not followed by an intermediary, safe harbour provisions will not apply to them.
Image curtsey: Yahoo News India
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