Social Media Guidelines & Rules – Indian government sets new rules for social media and OTT platforms
Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s electronics and information technology minister, took to a press conference to lay the new set of Social Media Guidelines & Rules for the Social media platforms and OTT platforms operating in India.
The government wants to introduce new laws and frameworks to establish more control over the big tech giants. Ravi Shankar Prasad told the press that “double standards of social media will not be acceptable”.
The Social Media Guidelines & Rules are believed to have come due to the increasing number of misinformation, fake news, and hate speech spread among the various social media platforms.
The Indian government is concerned that social media platforms are not doing much to stop such atrocities from happening. For the first time, The new Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, have guidelines regarding regulating social media and online content.
While many social media users were supporting the government on the new guidelines, many considered this a threat to freedom of expression and speech.
The new social media guidelines & rules also state that the social media site must take the requested content down as late as 36 hours after a legal order. The Indian government was on a spree of banning many Chinese apps last year, allegedly pirating user data.
Below are the new Social media guidelines released by the government of India’s Electronics and Information technology ministry
Source: https://pib.gov.in
Guidelines Related to Social Media to Be Administered by Ministry of Electronics and IT:
Due Diligence To Be Followed By Intermediaries:
The Rules prescribe due diligence that intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, must follow. In case due diligence is not followed by the intermediary, safe harbor provisions will not apply to them.
Grievance Redressal Mechanism:
The Rules seek to empower the users by mandating the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for resolving complaints from the users or victims. Intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the officer’s name and contact details. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty-four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt.
Ensuring Online Safety and Dignity of Users, Especially Women Users:
Intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images, etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf.
Two Categories of Social Media Intermediaries:
To encourage innovations and enable new social media intermediaries’ growth without subjecting smaller platforms to significant compliance requirements, the Rules distinguish between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. This distinction is based on the number of users on the social media platform. The government is empowered to notify the user base threshold that will distinguish between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. The Rules require the significant social media intermediaries to follow certain additional due diligence.
Additional Due Diligence to Be Followed by Significant Social Media Intermediary:
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- Appoint a Chief Compliance Officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules. Such a person should be a resident in India.
- Appoint a Nodal Contact Person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies. Such a person shall be a resident in India.
- Appoint a Resident Grievance Officer who shall perform the functions mentioned under Grievance Redressal Mechanism. Such a person shall be a resident in India.
- Publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints and details of contents removed proactively by the significant social media intermediary.
- Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information that is required only for prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, or punishment of an offense 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 offense relating to the above or in relation with rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. The intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator.
- Significant social media intermediary shall have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app, or both.
- Voluntary User Verification Mechanism: Users who wish to verify their accounts voluntarily shall be provided an appropriate mechanism to verify their accounts and provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification.
- Giving Users An Opportunity to Be Heard: In cases where significant social media intermediaries removes or disables 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.
Removal of Unlawful Information:
An intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the Appropriate Govt. or its agencies through an authorized officer should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law about the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries, etc.
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 affect three months after publication of these Rules.
Digital Media Ethics Code Relating to Digital Media and OTT Platforms to Be Administered by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:
There have been widespread concerns about issues relating to digital content both on digital media and OTT platforms. Civil Society, filmmakers, political leaders, including Chief Minister, trade organizations, and associations, have voiced their concerns and highlighted the imperative need for an appropriate institutional mechanism. The Government also received many complaints from civil Society and parents requesting interventions. There were many court proceedings in the Supreme Court and High Courts, where courts urged the Government to take suitable measures.
Since the matter relates to digital platforms, therefore, a conscious decision was taken that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shall administer issues relating to digital media and OTT and other creative programs on Internet, but the overall architecture shall be under the Information Technology Act, which governs digital platforms.
Consultations:
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting held consultations in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai over the last one and half years. OTT players have been urged to develop a “self-regulatory mechanism”. The Government also studied the models in other countries, including Singapore, Australia, EU, and UK and has gathered that most of them either have an institutional mechanism to regulate digital content or are in the process of setting up one.
The Rules establish a soft-touch self-regulatory architecture, a Code of Ethics, a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism for news publishers and OTT Platforms, and digital media.
Notified under section 87 of the Information Technology Act, these Rules empower the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to implement Part-III of the Rules, which prescribe the following:
Code of Ethics for online news, OTT platforms, and digital media:
This Code of Ethics prescribe the guidelines to be followed by OTT platforms and online information and digital media entities.
Self-Classification of Content:
The OTT platforms, called the publishers of online curated content in the rules, would self-classify the content into five age-based categories- U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as “A”. The publisher of online curated content shall prominently display the classification rating specific to each content or program together with a content descriptor informing the user about the nature of the content and advising on viewer description (if applicable) at the beginning of every program enabling the user to make an informed decision, before watching the program.
Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, thereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media.
A three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been established under the rules with different levels of self-regulation.
Level-I: Self-regulation by the publishers;
Level-II: Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers;
Level-III: Oversight mechanism.
Self-regulation by the Publisher:
The publisher shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer based in India, responsible for the redressal of grievances received by it. The officer shall decide on every grievance received within 15 days.
Self-Regulatory Body:
There may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body shall be headed by a Supreme Court’s retired judge, 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 publisher’s adherence to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that the publisher within 15 days has not resolved.
Oversight Mechanism:
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shall formulate an oversight mechanism. It shall publish a charter for self-regulating bodies, including Codes of Practices. It shall establish an Inter-Departmental Committee for hearing grievances.
