The Centre on Thursday said that social media intermediaries have to appoint grievance officer, who shall register complaints in 24 hours and redress them in 15 days.  While announcing the new guidelines for social media and OTT platforms, Ravi Shanker Prasad, Minister of IT said that a robust grievance mechanism would be built, especially for women who face ‘online harassment’.

Also Read: Centre’s guidelines for OTT, digital media

The IT minster clarified that the government is trying to put an end to ‘hate content’ and ‘online harassment’ by closely watching content available on social mediums.

“We welcome criticism and dissent and social media should be used for the purpose, but social media is now being used irresponsibly and youth is falling prey to it,” said Prasad

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“Social media companies are welcome to conduct business in India and they have done exceptionally well as of now but not at the cost of social chaos,” he added.

The purpose of these guidelines is to create a verification mechanism so that Government can trace the activities of anti-social elements. 

“Social media platforms must have provision for voluntary verification of users,” Prasad added.

Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, also announced guidelines to regulate Over The Top (OTT) platforms and digital media websites.

Stating that freedom of media comes with some responsibility, the I&B ministry announced a three-tier system needs to be put in place, including disclosure, grievance redressal, self regulation.