Popular social media platforms in the country such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram, may face a ban if they fail to comply with the new intermediary guidelines for social media platforms.Â
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Social Media Platform Missed The Deadline
For this compliance, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MEITy) has given a three-month deadline which ended on May 25.
Interestingly, none of the giants have accepted the new regulations till now.
These new rules are effective from today despite these companies seeking a total six-month delay in their implementation.
Except for the homegrown social media platform Koo, also known as the Indian version of Twitter, is the only platform that has accepted the Centre’s intermediary guidelines.
Many Rules Yet To Be Followed
The new rules also asked for a chief compliance officer and a nodal contact person which was part of the government norms announced on February 25.
Surprisingly, none of the three significant social media intermediaries had yet appointed a resident grievance officer.
The government has also asked to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and set up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.
While announcing the guidelines in February, they informed that these new rules take effect immediately.
But for significant social media providers (based on the number of users) will get three months before they need to start complying.
The Significant social media companies, having 50 lakh registered users will also have to publish a monthly compliance report.
This report will disclose the details of complaints received and action taken, as also details of contents removed proactively.
In addition to this, they will need to have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app, or both.
What Will Happen Next?
According to the rules If any of these social media platforms fail to accept these guidelines then they risk losing status as social media platforms and protections as intermediaries.
Apart from this, the government official also mentioned that they can take action against them as per the law of the land for not following the rules.
Social Media Platforms Take
The popular social media platform, Facebook assured that it’ll comply with the IT rules.
An official spokesperson from Facebook said, “We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues which need more engagement with the government. According to the IT rules, we are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies. Facebook remains committed to people’s ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platform,”.
In their defense, large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook indicated that these new rules were announced in February.
So, these platforms need to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.
As per the latest development, WhatsApp has now moved to the Delhi High Court challenging the aspect of the new rules imposed by the government.
WhatsApp claims that the traceability provision is unconstitutional and against people’s fundamental right to privacy.
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