Global social media goliaths including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which have hundreds of millions of existing users in India, are encountering a significant hurdle as the deadline for designating top officials in the nation concludes on Tuesday. None of them have complied with the guidelines published by the government in February.
Social media intermediary rules 2021, which come into power on Wednesday, strive to control digital content stressing a system of ethics and a three-tier objection redressal structure. Social media firms with more than 5 million users in the country have to designate a resident grievance officer, a chief compliance officer, and a nodal contact person. While these social media giants have millions of users (Facebook has an approximated 300 million live monthly users in India, Instagram has 120 million, and Twitter about 18 million), they have virtually no proximity in India in terms of designated executives who are available to the government or their users.
“We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues which need more engagement with the government,” a Facebook representative said. “We are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies.”The Indian IT ministry has disputed the repeated claims by these players that they require to get approval from their headquarters in the US before complying with the laws. The ministry requires the social media sites to register monthly reports about the cases registered against their content, how many were brought up, and the indeterminate situation.
Government sources insist that the social media companies do huge business in India, earning substantial amounts, yet refuse to support the government guidelines. If they do not adhere to the new rules from Wednesday, the social media firms will abandon their status as mediators and lose the legal immunity that they enjoyed all these years. People unhappy with the content on the platforms can attract them to court and file costly suits.
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Now, Twitter is enduring the heat in Delhi, where police executives are administering raids on their offices, seeking details about the leaders of the India operations, and investigating the case involving BJP leader Sambit Patra, whose tweet was identified as ‘manipulated media.’
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