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'Reveal Who Started Mischievous Tweet Or Content': Govt Announces New Social Media Rules
Writer: Navya Singh
Navya writes and speaks about matters that often do not come out or doesn’t see daylight. Defense and economy of the country is of special interest to her and a lot of her content revolves around that.
India, 25 Feb 2021 9:14 AM GMT
Editor : Shweta Kothari |
A broadcast turned digital journalist, Shweta Kothari heads the newsroom at The Logical Indian. She has previously worked with CNBC and NewsX as a news anchor and senior correspondent. Shweta holds a masters degree in journalism from the university of Sussex, UK and started her career with work placement with BBC in Scotland.
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Centre has made it compulsory for social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to take down contentious content as early as possible, but not later than 36 hours, after a government or legal order.
Under the newly introduced Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the centre has made it compulsory for social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to take down contentious content as early as possible, but not later than 36 hours, after a government or legal order.
The social media giants must provide information and co-operate with investigations within 72 hours of a request from authorities, the government said as it issued new guidelines for social media companies, Over the Top (OTT) players and digital media.
The rules also demand social media platforms track the 'first originator' of a message. The government says it is interested to know who started the 'mischief' and is not interested in the content.
The rules also mention that platforms must take down content that shows an individual in a sexual act or conduct, or in full or partial nudity, within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.
"A publisher shall take into consideration India's multi-racial and multi-religious context and exercise due caution and discretion when featuring the activities, beliefs, practices, or views of any racial or religious group," the rules said.
Social media intermediary should furnish their rules, regulations, privacy policy and user agreement for access or usage on their site or application.
As per the rules, the intermediary should inform the user of computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that is false, misleading or defamatory in nature.
"Users should be informed to not publish any information that is harmful to minors, infringes patents, or violates the law," the rules mentioned.
The rules also expect companies to inform users not to post any content that threatens the "unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states."
"The intermediary should also inform users once every year, in case of non-compliance with rules and regulations, privacy policy or user agreement for access of the computer resource of such intermediary," as per the rules.
The rules also carry the right to terminate the access or usage rights of the users to the computer resource immediately or remove it in case of non-compliance.
Furthermore, as per the rules, platforms should appoint a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) within 3 months from the date of publication of these rules.
The CCO will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and rules.
Companies should also appoint a nodal person of contact for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with their orders.
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