Indian Government Unveils Stringent Rules for Social Media Companies

Government announces new rules to regulate social media

India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate big social media firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, the latest effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to tighten control over Big Tech firms. 

Concerns have been raised about rampant abuse of social media platforms and spread of fake news and the government is bringing in a "soft touch" regulation, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said while announcing the new guidelines. 

The rules come after Twitter ignored orders to drop content on farmers’ protests, fuelling the government’s zeal, dating from 2018, to clamp down on material it regards as disinformation or unlawful.

What is required from social media companies under the new rules?

• Setting up a grievance redressal mechanism  
• Filing monthly compliance reports and coordinating with law enforcement authorities.
• Disclosing the first originator of mischievous information in court proceedings.
• Developing systems for voluntary verification of users. 

New guidelines necessary to hold social media companies accountable: Ravi Shankar Prasad

The government said the guidelines in its code of digital media ethics were needed to hold social media and other companies accountable for misuse and abuse.

Social media firms should be “more responsible and accountable,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technology, told reporters in outlining the rules.

Facebook welcomes Indian government's move to address challenges of the web

Facebook said it welcomes rules that prescribe ways to address challenges on the web. “The details of rules like these matter and we will carefully study the new rules,” it said in a statement.

Twitter declined to comment.

Big Tech under massive scrutiny worldwide 

Tech firms are coming under tighter scrutiny worldwide. Facebook faced a global backlash last week from publishers and politicians after it blocked news feeds in Australia in a dispute with the government over revenue-sharing.

That prompted last-ditch changes by Australia in a law passed on Thursday to ensure Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc pay media companies for content, a step that nations such as Britain and Canada want to follow.

Online News Media to be regulated as part of new rules

India’s rules will also require video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime to classify content into five categories based on users’ age, the government said. Online news media will also be regulated as part of the new rules, with the ministry of information and broadcasting creating an oversight system, the government added.

Apar Gupta, the executive director at advocacy Internet Freedom Foundation, said the new rules for digital news media portals and video streaming platforms posed risks to freedom of speech. “To fix the problems in these sectors the government has adopted an approach which carries the risks of political control and censorship,” he said.

(With Inputs from Reuters)