Centre proposes to amend rules for social media

The central government is planning to amend the rules for social media. It also wants to set up a grievance appellate committee to solve the grievances of individuals filed against the decisions of grievance officers.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) issued a draft notification on June 1 to amend Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

In these rules, Meity said that the central government should establish one or more Grievance Appellate Committees with a Chairperson and other members.

If any individual wants to appeal against the decision of the grievance officer of a social media platform, he or she can appeal before the committee.

The Grievance Appellate Committee should deal with these appeals and attempt to dispose of the appeal within 30 days from the receipt of the appeal.

The appellant also will have the right to seek judicial remedy on their grievance even though the committee provides an alternate grievances redressal mechanism.

Besides, the order said that the intermediaries should respect the rights of citizens, given to them by the Constitution of India.

Last year, the government notified rules for social media companies. The rules came into effect on May 26, 2021.

As per these rules, social media intermediaries with more than 50 lakh users need to appoint Indian residents in specified posts, to address the issues of the users. These include a nodal officer, a grievance officer, and a chief compliance officer.

The rules also mandated the identification of the ‘first originator’ of the information that damages the sovereignty of India and the security of the state. So, large social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter should reveal the identity of such first originators if asked by the government.

As per the rules, different social media platforms have been submitting monthly compliance reports.

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