The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday asked all big social media platforms to inform it about the status of compliance with the new digital rules that came into force from May 26.

The two-page note, sent to “significant social media intermediaries” which have more than 50 lakh subscribers, said the rules seeking “due diligence” required from such large digital platforms had come into effect from Wednesday. The Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology in its note has asked the companies to “confirm and share the response ASAP (as soon as possible) and preferably today itself”.

WhatsApp has filed a petition before the Supreme Court of Brazil on a similar matter.

"The Government of India is committed to ensure the Right of Privacy to all its citizens but at the same time it is also the responsibility of the government to maintain law and order and ensure national security," Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

As per its Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021, amended on February 25 this year, the IT Ministry has sought contact details and names of Chief Compliance Officer, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person. The three-member official panel is an essential requirement under the rules and social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube need to appoint these officials.

The ministry argued that the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada require social media firms to allow for legal interception and "what India is asking for is significantly much less than what some of the other countries have demanded".

WhatsApp's attempt to portray the Intermediary Guidelines of India as contrary to the right to privacy is misguided," the official statement said.

Social media companies are not liable for content posted on their platforms until now. As the new rules kick in, social media companies will lose their immunity from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints. The new rules require them to take down any content flagged by the authorities within 36 hours, and set up a robust mechanism to respond to complaints.

Image Source: TNS