The Centre, has released new guidelines for social media companies and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar conducted a joint press conference where the latter, while acknowledging the important function that social
media platforms serve in providing a voice to ordinary citizens, cautioned that such portals must not be used to disseminate content that impinges upon “individuals rights dignity” and privacy.
IT Minister Prasad added, “I urge big social media companies to have a ‘soft-touch oversight mechanism’ and have a ‘robust redressal of grievances.” According to the policy document, the new rules will come into effect within the next three months.
Here are the key points from the latest guidelines:
Digital intermediaries, including social media companies, must conduct appropriate due diligence. If it is found that due diligence has not been followed by any intermediary, safe harbour provisions will no longer apply to it.
The rules have been framed in order to “empower the users by mandating the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims.” Intermediaries will also now be required to appoint a Grievance Officer to deal specifically with complaints. The Grievance Officer must issue an acknowledgement of the receipt of a complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within fifteen days.
Digital intermediaries will now be required to “remove or disable access” to content that “exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images, etc” within 24 hours from when a complaint is received. Complaints can be filed either by the individual in question or any person on his/her behalf.
The rules also crucially distinguish between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. In doing so, they aim to “encourage innovations and enable growth of new social media intermediaries without subjecting smaller platforms to significant compliance requirement.”
The distinction drawn here will be based on the number of unique users on a particular platform with the government reserving the right to determine the user base threshold used to distinguish between the categories.
For significant social media intermediaries, additional due diligence needs to be followed:
They will be required to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules. The CCO has to be a resident of India. A Nodal Contact Person responsible for liaising with law enforcement agencies will also need to be appointed. Finally, a Resident Grievance Officer whose job it will be to perform the functions laid out under the Grievance Redressal Mechanism will also need to be appointed……….Read More>>
Source:- techiyogiz
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