The rules also call for a three-tier regulation mechanism for over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, YouTube, etc and require them to self-classify their content into five categories based on age suitability. The Centre Thursday notified new guidelines for intermediaries in “soft touch oversight” rules, saying these were needed to hold social media and other companies accountable for “misuse and abuse”. These will require Big Tech platforms to set up stronger grievance redressal mechanisms, and appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement in India.
For social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc, the guidelines essentially remove the “safe harbour” provided to these companies it limited their liability over content that users posted on their platforms if the platforms do not comply with due diligence norms. The Indian government thinks that it has found a loophole. It claims that it does not care about what messages are being passed around, but if an incident is found to have been instigated through social media, they want to know who started it all they want to find the ‘first originator’.
The government issued new rules to police online content that mandate social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to take down flagged posts with 36 hours of receiving a notice, direct encrypted messaging apps to trace certain messages back to the originator along with introducing a mechanism for voluntarily verification of users as a means to curb fake and anonymous posting on social media. These will have a major impact on the way social media platforms are regulated and governed in India.
Called the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, the rules are likely to be notified on Thursday and also seek to police content on video streaming and digital news media platforms through a self-regulatory mechanism.
In the making since 2018, the rules come close on the heels of a huge stand-off between the government of India and micro-blogging platform Twitter, where the latter did not comply with the government order to block thousands of Twitter, handles allegedly trying to fan violence around farmer protests in the country.
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