The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had on February 25 announced tighter regulations for social media firms. The rules that are aimed at regulating digital content, featuring a code of ethics and a three-tier grievance redressal framework, will be applicable from May 26.

With the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the social media platforms will be required to zero in on the origin of a tweet or a comment that is in the code of violence of the guidelines.

The new rules require the social media giants to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person, and resident grievance officer.

The appointment of the officer will be a key requirement from day one of the rules coming into effect.

Also read: Facebook says it will comply with India’s new digital guidelines

The rules would require the firm to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.

Non-compliance with rules would result in these social media companies losing the intermediary status that provides them exemptions from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them.

However, homegrown social media platform Koo,
which is the Indian version of Twitter, is the only platform that has so far
accepted the Centre’s intermediary guidelines.

Also read: Facebook cut access to 944 content items in India on government request

Facebook, on the other hand, has indicated that it’ll
comply with the IT rules. “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.

“According to the IT rules, we are working to implement
operational processes and improve efficiencies. Facebook remains committed to
people’s ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platform,”
an official spokesperson of the company said in a statement.

Also read: Why WhatsApp is delaying enforcement of new privacy terms

As
per the new rules by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology,
the social media platforms will have to appoint compliance officers from India.
The officer will overlook the complaints, monitor the content, and remove it if
it is objectionable. Such rules are not only applicable to social media
platforms but also OTT platforms.