Govt may stick to social media oversight in new rules

NEW DELHI: The Union government is set to push through with setting up committees that will have the final say on what social media content stays up or is taken down, documents accessed by HT show, with an amendment to IT Rules, 2021 putting this into effect soon.

First unveiled in June as a draft notification seeking public feedback, the proposal attracted criticism from civil liberties activists who said that a grievance redressal committee, as envisaged by the Centre, would give the government the final say on online speech.

A new version, taking into account public feedback, retains the broad concept, but adds that there will be multiple grievance committees instead of one, and gives intermediaries room to make “reasonable efforts” to ensure users do not post unlawful content.

“The Central Government shall, by notification, establish one or more Grievance Appellate Committees within three months from the date of commencement of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022,” stated the new draft document, which HT has seen. “Each Grievance Appellate Committee shall consist of a chairperson and two whole time members appointed by the Central Government, of which one shall be a member ex-officio and two shall