Centre brings back plan for panel to decide on social media content

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday brought back a proposal to amend the rules that govern social media companies, including a plan to set up a new government-appointed committee that experts have said will effectively take the final call on what content stays up or is taken down from websites like Twitter and Facebook.

The announcement was made in a press note by the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity), which had pulled the draft proposal within hours of first uploading it last week when it triggered a strong pushback online.

The release on Monday reinstates the proposal in the same form, with additional explanations for the changes the government plans to make to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The guidelines, known as the IT Rules, 2021, has already been suspended by several high courts after being challenged as unconstitutional.

“The goals of these rules (the new intermediary guidelines) are to ensure an Open, Safe & Trusted and Accountable Internet for all Indian Internet Users and Digital Nagriks. These rules have succeeded in creating a new sense of accountability amongst Intermediaries to their users especially within Big Tech platforms,” the government statement said.

The amendments have now been disclosed for public inputs, which the government will accept over the next 30 days.

The proposed changes also include a 72-hour deadline for companies to act on complaints if they fall under one of ten types of violations defined by the government, including copyright infringements, defamatory content and false information.

If the intermediary – the legal classification of a social media company – fails to adhere by the IT Rules, they will be liable to lose their “safe harbour” status under Section 79 of the parent Information Technology Act, which exempts these companies from liability of what is posted by its users.

The key concerns, however, relate to the grievance redressal committee — a panel where users can contest any decision taken by social media companies in terms of removing content or a user’s access to the service.

“Every order passed by the grievance appellate committee shall be complied by the concerned intermediary,” the proposed rules said. It also laid down a 30-day window for the committee to make a decision on appeal.

“This is made necessary because currently there is no appellate mechanism provided by intermediaries nor is there any credible self-regulatory mechanism in place,” the government statement said, justifying a move that experts had said will give the administration the final say on online speech.