social media guidelines: Govt wants social media firms to remove content under 36 hours; trace originator of messages – The Economic Times

Clipped from: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/social-media-to-remove-content-under-36-hours-trace-originator-of-messages-new-rules/articleshow/81205550.cmsSynopsis

Under the new rules, social media platforms such as Twitter will have to mandatorily take down content upon receiving a court order or notice from an authorised government agency with 36 hours of receiving such a notice.

In what will have a major impact on the way social media platforms are regulated and governed in India, the government is likely to notify the amended intermediary liability guidelines under the Information Technology Act today. These have been named as the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Under the new rules, social media platforms such as Twitter will have to mandatorily take down content upon receiving a court order or notice from an authorised government agency with 36 hours of receiving such a notice. This comes close on the heels of a huge stand-off between the government of India and microblogging platform Twitter, where the latter did not comply with the government order to thousands of Twitter handles allegedly trying to fan violence around farmer protests in the country.
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In what will have a big impact on instant messaging platforms such as Whatsapp that claim to be end-to-end encrypted, the new rules have also mandated that upon notice from the government, platforms will have to “trace” the “first originator” of content in case of a law and order situation. Such information will not be allowed to be shared by the intermediary to their users and if the first originator is found to be from outside the country, the first person to have shared the content within India will be considered the “first originator” of such content.

Platforms will have to respond to government requests for information to help with an investigation within 72 hours and also act on user requests for removal of content.

In addition to the following, “Significant Social media intermediaries” will also be required to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, resident in India to ensure compliance with the rules, a nodal person of contact for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies along with a “Resident Grievance Officer”.

The Internet Freedom Foundation took to Twitter to say that “the first concern we are highlighting is the covert regulation of OTT and news media platforms through proxy. The draft IT Rules have defined a “Code Of Ethics And Procedure And Safeguards In Relation To Digital/Online Media”.” IT added that the draft IT Rules have introduced the requirement of traceability of the originator of information, which would break end-to-end encryption. “Many platforms (Whatsapp, Signal etc.) retain minimal user data and use E2E encryption to provide privacy to users.”

The draft IT Rules require social media platforms to deploy AI to proactively identify objectionable content like sexual violence. “There are better ways to tackle such content than sliding down the slope of automated censorship & surveillance culture,” it added.

• Social media platforms will have to mandatorily take down content upon receiving a court order or notice from an authorised government agency with 36 hours of receiving such a notice
• Upon notice from the government, platforms will have to “trace” the “first originator” of content in case of a law and order situation.
• Platforms will have to respond to government requests for information to help with an investigation within 72 hours and also act on user requests for the removal of content.
• If a post depicts an individual in any sexual act or conduct, then companies must disable or remove such content within a day of receiving a complaint.
• The government has now expanded the scope of the intermediary rules to also include news media and OTT platforms.
• The rules require companies to appoint a chief compliance officer, another executive for coordinating on law enforcement and a “grievance redressal officer”.