FB to comply with India’s intermediary rules
NEW DELHI: Facebook will comply with the new intermediary guidelines announced by the Indian government in February, the social media giant said on Tuesday.
“We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues that need more engagement with the government. Pursuant to the IT rules, we are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies. Facebook remains committed to people’s ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platform,” the company told Mint.
However, the company did not say when it could comply with the norms and what is required of it for compliance. The Centre had announced the Intermediary Guidelines on 25 February, giving social media firms three months to comply with them.
Facebook also ignored a question on whether the platform will shut down if it hasn’t complied by May 25.
The Intermediary Rules required social media firms to track the first originator of posts that may be considered offensive by the government.
This might lead to suppression of free speech and increased censorship by such companies in India, experts said. “In their current form, these rules will undeniably harm freedom of expression, privacy, and security and could be subject to legal challenges,” Udbhav Tiwari, public policy advisor at Mozilla Corporation, had said in February. “Provisions such as traceability of encrypted content, timelines for taking down harsh content, and automated content filtering are blunt and disproportionate to the intention behind these changes,” he said.
The new rules had led to concerns about how encrypted messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Signal will function in the country. It is impossible to trace the first originator of posts and maintain encryption, which is essential for user privacy, experts have said.
As per data cited by the government, India has 53 crore WhatsApp users, 44.8 crore YouTube users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers, 21 crore Instagram clients, while 1.75 crore account holders are on microblogging platform Twitter.
The new rules were introduced to make social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram which have seen a phenomenal surge in usage over the past few years in India - more accountable and responsible for the content hosted on their platform.