The government on Thursday announced new information technology rules to curb the misuse of social media platforms. It mandated firms to appoint a grievance officer and disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove it within 36 hours. The rules said content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women needed to be removed within 24 hours. The rules notified by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, will affect players such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and will include OTT (over the top) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney, and Hotstar. The rules make a distinction between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries that have a large number of users. The government will notify the threshold of the user base that will distinguish between the two.
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Synopsis
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.
New guidelines for Social Media, OTT Platforms: How will it impact you?
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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.