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Stricter norms for social media, OTT
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SME Times News Bureau | 25 Feb, 2021
The Union Government on Thursday came up with new stringent guidelines
for social media platforms along with code of ethics for over-the-top
(OTT) platforms and digital media.
Addressing the media, the
Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that
social media platforms will be classified under two categories - social
media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries - with
the latter being subject to greater obligations.
The government
will soon notify a list of significant social media intermediaries soon,
the minister said, adding that platforms with a "significant" number of
users will be classified as significant social media intermediaries. A
benchmark number would be set for the classification, he said.
The
Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media
Ethics Code) Rules 2021 mandate that the intermediaries, including
social media intermediaries must establish a grievance redressal
mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims.
Intermediaries will have to appoint a Grievance Officer to deal
with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such
officer. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within
twenty-four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt,
said an official statement.
As per the new norms "an
intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a
court or being notified by the appropriate government should not host
or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation
to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public
order, friendly relations with foreign countries etc."
Further,
significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in
the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the originator of
the information that is required only offences related to sovereignty
and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations
with foreign states, or public order or of incitement to an offence
relating to rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse.
The
norm would be applicable to offences under which an offender would be
punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years.
Intermediary
shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any
other information to the first originator, said the statement.
Further,
the significant platforms will have to appoint a Chief Compliance
Officer, a Nodal Contact Person, a Resident Grievance Officer.
The
platforms would also have to publish a monthly compliance report
mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the
complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively by the
significant social media intermediary.
In cases where
significant social media intermediaries remove or disable access to any
information on their own accord, then a prior intimation for the same
shall be communicated to the user who has shared that information with a
notice explaining the grounds and reasons for such action.
Users
must be provided an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the
action taken by the intermediary, as per the new norms.
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, which shall come in effect 3 months after
publication of these Rules.
Further, on the online news, OTT
platforms and digital media platforms, the government has set up
three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been under the rules with
different levels of self-regulation. The levels are self-regulation by
the publishers, self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the
publishers, oversight mechanism self-classification of content.
A
per the Code of Ethics, the publisher shall appoint a Grievance
Redressal Officer based in India who shall be responsible for the
redressal of grievances received by it.
The officer shall take decision on every grievance received by it within 15 days.
There
may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body
shall be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or
independent eminent person and have not more than six members. Such a
body will have to register with the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting.
This body will oversee the adherence by the
publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that have not be
been resolved by the publisher within 15 days.
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